Lewis R. Hunter (July 18, 1935 – January 6, 2023) was an American screenwriter, author and educator, and chairman Emeritus and Professor of Screenwriting at the UCLA Department of Film and Television. Over half of the Oscar winning scripts over the past twenty years have been written by students of Hunter. His former students and advocates include such people as Adrienne Parks,

Allison Anders Allison Anders (born November 16, 1954) is an American independent film director whose films include ''Gas Food Lodging'', ''Mi Vida Loca'' and ''Grace of My Heart''. Anders has collaborated with fellow UCLA School of Theater, Film and Televisio ...

David Koepp David Koepp (; born June 9, 1963) is an American filmmaker. Koepp is the ninth most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a total gross of over $2.3 billion. Koepp has achieved both critical and commercial ...

Mike Werb Mike Werb is an American screenwriter, whose writing credits include ''Face/Off'', '' The Mask'' and the story for '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider''. A Los Angeles native, Werb attended Stanford. He is a UCLA Film School graduate. He has worked as ...

Sacha Gervasi Alexander Simon "Sacha" Gervasi''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (; born 1966) is a British director, screenwriter and former journalist. Early life Gervasi was born in London. His mother ...

, Dan Pyne,

David Titcher David N. Titcher is a screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the creator of The Librarian (franchise) writer of '' The Librarian: Quest for the Spear'', '' The Curse of King Tut's Tomb'', '' The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines'', ...

, James Dalessandro, Diane Saltzberg,

Michael Colleary Michael Colleary is an American film producer, screenwriter and television writer. His writing credits include ''Face/Off'', '' Firehouse Dog'', ''The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', the story for '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,'' and the Cartoon ...

Don Mancini George Donald Mancini (born January 25, 1963) is an American screenwriter and film director, most notable for the ''Child's Play'' franchise. Career Having been a horror fan since his childhood, Mancini's inspiration for '' Child's Play'' were ...

, Kathy Stumpe,

Darren Star Darren Star (born July 25, 1961) is an American writer, director and producer of film and television. He is best known for creating the television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1990–2000), ''Melrose Place'' (1992–1999), ''Sex and the City' ...

Alexander Payne Constantine Alexander Payne (; born February 10, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for the films ''Citizen Ruth'' (1996), ''Election'' (1999), ''About Schmidt'' (2002), ''Sideways'' (2004), ''The Desc ...

and

Tom Shadyac Thomas Peter Shadyac (born December 11, 1958) is an American director, screenwriter, producer, and author. The youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, Shadyac is widely known for writing and directing the comedy films ''Ace Ventura: Pe ...

. Other students include Chuck Loch, Paige Macdonald,

Robert Wolfe Robert Wolfe (March 2, 1921 – December 10, 2014) was a World War II U.S. Army officer, historian, and retired senior archivist of the US National Archives. He was wounded in both the Pacific and European Theaters of Operation. He commanded ...

Joel Schumacher Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designer. H ...

, Megan Steinbeck, Robert Roy Poole, Lon Diamond, Laurie Hutlzer,

Pamela Gray Pamela Gray (born 1956) is an American screenwriter. Biography Gray was raised in a Jewish family in New York City, the daughter of a salesman and a schoolteacher.

William Missouri Downs William Missouri Downs is an American comedy writer, playwright, screenwriter, stage director, and author Life & Writing William Missouri Downs started as an actor earning an MFA in acting from the University of Illinois, but a bout with vira ...

Robin Russin Robin Russin is an American screenwriter, director, playwright, author and educator. Education Robin Uriel Russin was educated at Harvard, Oxford (which he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship), the Rhode Island School of Design, and UCLA, where he ...

Brad Silberling Bradley Mitchell Silberling (born September 8, 1963) is an American television director, television and film director whose credits include the feature films ''Casper (film), Casper'' (1995), ''City of Angels (film), City of Angels'' (1998), ''M ...

, Greg Widen, Vinnie Langdon III, and many others.

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...

has called Hunter "the best screenwriting teacher going".

Background

A native of

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, Hunter had a bachelor's degree and honorary doctorate from

Nebraska Wesleyan University Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU) is a private Methodist-affiliated university in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was founded in 1887 by Nebraska Methodists. As of 2017, it has approximately 2,100 students including 1,500 full-time students and 300 ...

(where he was a member of

Phi Kappa Tau Phi Kappa Tau (), commonly known as Phi Tau (), is a collegiate fraternity located in the United States. The fraternity was founded in 1906. As of November 2022, the fraternity has 161 chartered chapters, 79 active chapters, 6 Associate chapte ...

fraternity) and had master's degrees from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He worked extensively in television, first in programming and production on a wide range of popular television shows such as ''

Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typic ...

'', ''

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

'', ''

Little House on the Prairie The ''Little House on the Prairie'' books is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the Midwestern United States, American M ...

'' and ''

The Rockford Files ''The Rockford Files'' is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974 to January 10, 1980, and remains in syndication. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investigator ...

'', before he moved into the creative side, writing TV movies and series such as ''

The Sound of Love ''The Sound of Love'' is a 1977 Australian television film directed by John Power and starring John Jarratt and George Ogilvie George Buchan Ogilvie (5 March 1931 – 5 April 2020) was a prolific Australian theatre director and actor, who al ...

'', ''

If Tomorrow Comes If Tomorrow Comes may refer to: * ''If Tomorrow Comes'' (film), a 1971 American TV film * ''If Tomorrow Comes'' (novel), a 1985 novel by Sidney Sheldon * ''If Tomorrow Comes'' (miniseries), a 1986 miniseries based on the novel * ''If Tomorrow C ...

'', ''

Fallen Angel In the Abrahamic religions, fallen angels are angels who were expelled from heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" never appears in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven"Mehdi Azaiez, Gabriel Said R ...

'' and ''

The Yellow Rose ''The Yellow Rose'' is an American soap opera television series that was broadcast on NBC from October 2, 1983 until May 12, 1984. It was produced by Paul Freeman. The series was at least partly inspired by the more coltish elements of the soap o ...

''. Hunter joined the UCLA faculty in 1979 as a professor of screenwriting. In 1988, he was made Chairman of the department. While at UCLA, he started "The Writer's Block," a gathering of writers at his home in Burbank to do table readings and exchange notes and feedback on stories they were working on. He retired from UCLA in 2000. He taught one class each winter semester from 2001 to 2015. Hunter helped to found the

American Screenwriters Association The American Screenwriters Association (ASA) is a community of screenwriters and filmmakers, sharing their combined knowledge of screenwriting and the movie industry. Its primary mission is to help emerging screenwriters hone their screenwriting ski ...

and has been inducted into its Hall of Fame. Hunter returned to Nebraska in 2003, living in the small town of

Superior, Nebraska Superior is a city in Nuckolls County, Nebraska, Nuckolls County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city population was 1,957. Superior bills itself as the "Victorian Capital of Nebraska", and holds a ...

, where he taught seminars for aspiring screenwriters from 2004 to 2014. He retired completely from teaching in 2016 and moved to

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, in 2018. Hunter was one of the founders of the Nebraska Coast Connection, a monthly gathering of entertainment professionals originally from Nebraska now living and working in Los Angeles. He also was involved in the annual Omaha Film Festival. Hunter was married twice, and was still married to his second wife Pamela at the time of his death. He had four children from his first marriage. Hunter died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in Arizona on January 6, 2023, at the age of 87.

''Screenwriting 434''

Every winter, Hunter returned to UCLA to teach his Screenwriting 434 course to graduate students in the screenwriting MFA program, the modern form of which he helped create. In 1998, nine of the ten top-grossing films were written by graduates of UCLA's screenwriting MFA program. His bestselling book on screenwriting is entitled ''Screenwriting 434''.

References

External links

* 1935 births 2023 deaths People from Superior, Nebraska American male screenwriters American information and reference writers American instructional writers American television writers American male television writers Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona Nebraska Wesleyan University alumni Northwestern University School of Communication alumni Screenwriting instructors Writers of books about writing fiction UCLA Film School alumni UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television faculty American male non-fiction writers Educators from Nebraska Screenwriters from Nebraska {{US-film-bio-stub