Joan Tewkesbury (born April 8, 1936) is an American film and television director, writer, producer, choreographer and actress. She had a long association with the celebrated director

Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New ...

, writing the screenplays for '' Thieves Like Us'' (1974), and ''

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

'' (1975), widely regarded as "Altman's masterpiece", and which earned her a nomination for the

BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay The BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay is a British Academy Film Award for the best script. It was awarded from 1968 to 1982. In 1983 it was split into BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay and BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. 1960s * 1968 ...

Early life

Tewkesbury was born in

Redlands, California Redlands ( ) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 73,168, up from 68,747 at the 2010 census. The city is located approximately west of Palm Springs and east of ...

, the daughter of Frances M. (née Stevenson), a registered nurse, and Walter S. Tewkesbury, an office machine repairman. She began her career at age ten as a dancer in '' The Unfinished Dance'' with

Margaret O'Brien Angela Maxine O'Brien (born January 15, 1937) is an American film, radio, television, and stage actress, and is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Beginning a prolific career as a child actress in feature ...

and

Cyd Charisse Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea; March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American actress and dancer. After recovering from polio as a child and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s. Her roles usually featured her abilit ...

. One of her early television acting roles was in a guest appearance on the short-lived

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

drama '' It's a Man's World''.

Career

Tewkesbury collaborated with Altman on several of his films, including ''

McCabe and Mrs. Miller ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller'' is a 1971 American revisionist Western film directed by Robert Altman and starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. The screenplay by Altman and Brian McKay is based on the 1959 novel ''McCabe'' by Edmund Naughton. Man ...

'' (1971, as a script supervisor) and '' Thieves Like Us'' (1974, her first credit as a feature writer). She then wrote ''Nashville'', which she had proposed to Altman prior to his filming of ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller''; he became interested in the setting and sent Tewkesbury to Nashville in the fall of 1973 to observe the area and its citizenry. Tewkesbury's diary of her trip provided the basis for the screenplay, with many observations making it into the finished film, such as the highway pileup. Tewkesbury wrote and directed numerous hours of episodic television, including for

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, HBO, CBS,

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

, and

. She has also directed

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

, co-choreographed and directed for the

Oregon Ballet Theatre Oregon Ballet Theatre (OBT) is a ballet company in Portland, Oregon, United States. The company performs an annual five-program season at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts and conducts regional and national tours. It was featured in t ...

and performed, written and directed for the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. Her play, ''The Retrospective'', was presented at the Manhattan Theatre Source. In 2011, Tewkesbury published her first novel, ''Ebba and the Green Dresses of Olivia Gomez in a Time of Conflict and War''. She has also taught screenwriting, at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, with her workshop “Designed Obstacles, Spontaneous Response” travelling throughout the United States, Israel, and Japan. Since 2003, Tewkesbury has lived in

Tesuque, New Mexico Tesuque (Tewa: Tetsʼúgéh Ówîngeh / Tetsugé Oweengé ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States. It is part of the Santa Fe, New Mexico, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 909 at the 20 ...

Filmography as director

* ''

Old Boyfriends ''Old Boyfriends'' is a 1979 American drama film directed by Joan Tewkesbury and written by the brothers Paul and Leonard Schrader. The film stars Talia Shire, Richard Jordan, Keith Carradine, John Belushi, John Houseman and Buck Henry. The ...

'' (1979) * '' The Tenth Month'' (1979) (TV) * '' The Acorn People'' (1981) (TV) * ''

Cold Sassy Tree ''Cold Sassy Tree'' is a 1984 historical novel by Olive Ann Burns. Set in the US state of Georgia in the fictional town of Cold Sassy (based on the real city of Harmony Grove, now Commerce) in 1906, it follows the life of a 14-year-old boy named ...

'' (1989) (TV) * ''

Scattering Dad ''Scattering Dad'' is a 1998 American made-for-television drama film directed by Joan Tewkesbury and starring Olympia Dukakis and Andy Griffith. It aired on CBS on January 4, 1998.TV Guide. January 3-9, 1998. pg. 87 Premise An agoraphobic woman ...

'' (1998) (TV)

Series

* '' Elysian Fields'' (1989) (TV) * ''

Strangers A stranger is a person who is unknown to another person or group. Because of this unknown status, a stranger may be perceived as a threat until their identity and character can be ascertained. Different classes of strangers have been identified f ...

'' (1992) (TV) * '' Felicity'' (TV series) * ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' (2001) (TV series)

References

External links

* 1936 births Actresses from California American film actresses Film producers from California Screenwriters from California American television directors American women film directors American women television directors Living people People from Redlands, California American women screenwriters American women television writers Film directors from California People from Tesuque, New Mexico Film directors from New Mexico American women film producers Screenwriters from New Mexico Screenwriting instructors American television writers 21st-century American women {{US-tv-bio-stub