Fred Haines (February 27, 1936 – May 4, 2008) was an American screenwriter and film director.

Early life

Haines was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in 1936, and later 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 ...

with his family. He joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in 1953, and served until 1956 when he received an honorable discharge. While in the Navy, he had married Dede Wright, the daughter of his commanding Admiral, although they divorced in 1961 after having two children.Rourke, Mary
Fred Haines, 72; film writer and director
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', May 22, 2008.

Film career

After leaving the military, Haines studied literature at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

before receiving his degree from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He got a job at KPFA, where he met film director Joseph Strick through film critic

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

. Strick was impressed with Haines' intellectual curiosity and film knowledge, and got him a job in the writing department at

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. Kennedy, Douglas
OBITUARY - Fred Haines: Screenwriter who adapted 'Ulysses'
''

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'', May 10, 2008. Strick obtained the film rights to the

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

novel '' Ulysses'', and brought Haines on board as co-writer and

associate producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

for the film, with Strick directing. '' Ulysses'' was released in 1967, and was praised for its faithfulness to Joyce's novel, receiving a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 1967 Academy Awards. While filming ''Ulysses'' in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, Haines met his second wife, Frances McCormack. Haines continued to work closely with Strick, although he requested his name be taken off the credits for Strick's 1970 adaptation of

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

's ''

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted tow ...

'' after a disagreement between the pair. Haines spent the early 1970s trying to arrange funding for his proposed adaptation of

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include ''Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and ''The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual's ...

's novel '' Steppenwolf''. The film version was released in 1974, with Haines directing the film himself. When McCormack fell ill with multiple sclerosis, Haines and his wife moved to Ireland to be closer to her family and the Irish health care system. The couple lived in a rented apartment in the house of writer Constantine Fitzgibbon on the outskirts of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, and Haines worked as a script editor for the Irish broadcaster RTÉ and helped to run Stage One, a fringe theatre company with fellow American expatriate writer Douglas Kennedy.

Later life

By 1984, money troubles prompted Haines and McCormack to return to Los Angeles. Their marriage ended in 2000, and Haines later lived next door to his son Sean in

Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

until he died aged 72 on May 4, 2008, due to complications from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haines, Fred 1936 births 2008 deaths American male screenwriters University of California, Berkeley alumni United States Navy sailors Writers from Los Angeles Deaths from lung cancer in California Film directors from Los Angeles American expatriates in Ireland Screenwriters from California 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters