Kevin Noel Jarre (August 6, 1954 – April 3, 2011) was an American screenwriter, actor, and film producer. He adopted the last name of his adoptive father,
Maurice Jarre
Maurice-Alexis Jarre (; 13 September 1924 – 28 March 2009)allmusic Biography/ref> was a French composer and conductor. Although he composed several concert works, Jarre is best known for his film scores, particularly for his collaborations with ...
.
Background and personal life
Jarre was born on August 6, 1954, in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, to actress
Laura Devon
Laura Devon (born Mary Louise Briley; May 23, 1931 – July 19, 2007) was an American actress, singer, and model.
Early life
Laura Devon was born May 23, 1931, in Chicago. Her birth name has been given as either Mary Lou Briley or Mary Laura Br ...
and her second husband, Cleland B. Clark. After his parents' divorced, he lived in
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
for a time with his father, whom he referred to as Hemingwayesque, and who had combined ranching and fashion photography. He then returned to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
with his mother, who was married at that time to actor
Brian Kelly. In the mid-1960s, Devon subsequently married French composer
Maurice Jarre
Maurice-Alexis Jarre (; 13 September 1924 – 28 March 2009)allmusic Biography/ref> was a French composer and conductor. Although he composed several concert works, Jarre is best known for his film scores, particularly for his collaborations with ...
, who adopted Kevin.
He was the step-brother of
Jean-Michel Jarre
Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanie ...
and Stéfanie Jarre.
In the early 1990s, he had dated actress
Lisa Zane
Lisa Zane (born Elizabeth Frances Zane; April 5, 1961) is an American actress and singer.
Personal life
Zane was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Thalia and William George Zane Sr., founders of a medical technical school. Her family's ...
; he had written the role of Josephine Marcus in
''Tombstone'' with her in mind.
On July 25, 2009, Jarre was arrested in
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...
for driving while intoxicated, his bail was set at $5,000.
Career
In the 1960s, Jarre had small acting parts in the TV series ''
Flipper''. In England, while his father was scoring the film ''
Ryan's Daughter
''Ryan's Daughter'' is a 1970 British Epic film, epic Romance film, romantic drama film directed by David Lean and starring Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles. The film, set between August 1917 and January 1918, tells the story of a married Irish ...
'', Kevin became a friend of writer/director
David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River ...
, who encouraged him to take up screenwriting and directing, giving him the books
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 (New Style, N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the Englis ...
's ''Life of Johnson'' and
Alan Moorehead
Alan McCrae Moorehead, (22 July 1910 – 29 September 1983) was a war correspondent and author of popular histories, most notably two books on the nineteenth-century exploration of the Nile, ''The White Nile'' (1960) and ''The Blue Nile'' (196 ...
's ''The Blue Nile'' and ''The White Nile''. One of his early scripts was an unproduced screenplay he had written called ''Eternal War'', which was sent to producer
Paul Kohner
Paul Kohner (May 29, 1902 – March 16, 1988) was an Austrian-American talent agent and producer who managed the careers of many stars and others—like Ingrid Bergman, Maurice Chevalier, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, John Huston, Liv Ullmann an ...
. In the 1980s, he had written a story treatment that eventually became ''
Rambo: First Blood Part II'' (1985), as Jarre later recalled in an interview in the documentary ''Tinsel - The Lost Movie About Hollywood'':
Jarre also wrote the screenplays for ''
The Mummy
A mummy is an unusually well preserved corpse.
Mummy or The Mummy may also refer to:
Places
*Mummy Range, a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States
*Mummy Cave, a rock shelter and archeological site in Par ...
'' (1999) and ''
The Devil's Own
''The Devil's Own'' is a 1997 American action thriller film starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, with Rubén Blades, Natascha McElhone, Julia Stiles, Margaret Colin, and Treat Williams in supporting roles. It was the final film directed by Ala ...
'' (1997).
Jarre often worked as a script doctor, rewriting scripts, such as the 1990 movie, ''
Navy Seals
The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the United States Navy, U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command, Naval Special Wa ...
''., the 2004 movie, ''
The Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Anto ...
''., ''Track Down'', an unproduced screenplay written by Ron Mita and Jim McClain., and the 1997 movie ''
The Jackal'' (in which Jarre served as a producer), among other films.
In addition to his produced work, Jarre was considered for, or had written several scripts that were never produced, such as a movie about the
Hell's Angels that would've been directed by
Steve De Jarnatt
Steve De Jarnatt is an American film and television director, screenwriter, and short-story author.
De Jarnatt is perhaps best known for writing and directing the nuclear-apocalypse thriller ''Miracle Mile'' (1988) and directing the sci-fi film ...
and starred
Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films.
During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles i ...
, an adaptation of
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...
's ''
Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
'', a film about the life and times of
Wild Bill Hickok
James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837August 2, 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement ...
that he would've directed, a remake of ''
The Magnificent Seven
''The Magnificent Seven'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay by William Roberts is a remake – in an Old West–style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film '' Seven Samurai'' (itself initially relea ...
'', a screenplay called ''Golden Gate Iron'' that he co-wrote with
Derick Martini
Derick Martini is an American screenwriter and film director and an owner of commercial property and advertising billboards located in New York City.
Film and television
Martini's feature film writing credits include the coming of age story '' ...
, two screenplays titled ''Dead of Summer'', and ''Father and Son (Valhalla's Wake)'', a Civil War suspense story about
Ward Hill Lamon
Ward Hill Lamon (January 6, 1828 – May 7, 1893) was a personal friend and self-appointed bodyguard of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Lamon was famously absent the night Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, having bee ...
, the friend and bodyguard of
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
, a script idea called ''Hot Springs'', and ''Blood Mark'', a screenplay co-written with
Desmond Nakano
Desmond Nakano (born 1953) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is Sansei, or third-generation Japanese American. He directed the feature films, ''White Man's Burden (film), White Man's Burden'' (1995) and ''American Pastime (film), ...
.
He began directing ''
Tombstone'' (1993) from his own screenplay but he was fired a month into shooting and replaced by
George P. Cosmatos
George Pan Cosmatos (4 January 1941 – 19 April 2005) was a Greek-Italian film director and screenwriter. Following early success in his home country with drama films such as ''Massacre in Rome'' with Richard Burton (based on the real-life Arde ...
. Jarre's scenes featuring
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist.
As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten C ...
are still featured in the finished film.
He had a role in the short ''A Hero of Our Time'' (1985), directed by
Michael Almereyda
Michael Almereyda (born April 7, 1960) is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer.
Early work
Almereyda studied art history at Harvard but dropped out after three years to pursue filmmaking. He acquired a Hollywood agent on ...
and based on
Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucas ...
's
novel of the same title, and screened in the 1992
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
. He also appeared in the film ''
Gotham'', the only movie directed by Lloyd Fonvielle.
He had a profound interest in history since childhood. He was especially fascinated by the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, which led to his in-depth research of the
54th Massachusetts Regiment
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry ...
which inspired his screenplay for ''
Glory'' (1989). He played a bit part as a quarrelsome soldier who picks a fight and later, as the 54th regiment heads for battle, yells, "Give 'em hell, 54th!" For his work on ''Glory'', he was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
The Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture is a Golden Globe Award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Winners and nominees
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
See also
* Acad ...
and a
WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The screenplays of ''
The Devil's Own
''The Devil's Own'' is a 1997 American action thriller film starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, with Rubén Blades, Natascha McElhone, Julia Stiles, Margaret Colin, and Treat Williams in supporting roles. It was the final film directed by Ala ...
'' and ''
Tombstone'' were published as novels in 1997 and 1994 respectively.
Death
Jarre died on April 3, 2011, in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, of heart failure, at the age of 56.
Filmography
References
External links
*
Glory Screenwriter Kevin Jarre DiesKevin Jarre @thetvdb.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarre, Kevin
1954 births
2011 deaths
Film producers from Michigan
American male screenwriters
Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Male actors from Detroit
Screenwriters from Michigan