Lee Server (May 27, 1953 – December 28, 2021) was an American writer. He was a graduate of
New York University Film School. Server wrote several books about
Hollywood cinema and
pulp fiction.
Personal life
Server was born on May 27, 1953, in
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...
.
He was married to Terri Hardin.
Server died on December 28, 2021, in
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
, at the age of 68.
Career
In the mid-1980s, Server set out to interview as many Golden Age Hollywood screenwriters as he could locate. After talking to 23 all-but-forgotten writers about working inside the studio system during the 1930s and '40s, Server selected 12 of the interviews to be published as his first book, ''Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures''. Disgruntled with his contemporaries' tendency to emphasize the director's contributions to the filmmaking process, Server felt that "the time has come to shine a bit more light in the direction of the neglected screenwriter." The
Black List's official screenwriting blog has saluted Server's effort, citing ''Words Become Pictures'' as one of the 10 most essential books about screenwriting from the perspective of working screenwriters.
Server's book on
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' att ...
, ''Love is Nothing'' (2006) was described as an "excellent biography" by
Peter Bogdanovich.
On March 20, 2019, Server joined George Noory on the Coast to Coast radio program to discuss his most recent book, ''Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin.''
Lee Server on the colorful life of mobster Johnny Rosselli, Coast to Coast, March 20, 2019.
Books
*''Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin'' (2018)
*''Ava Gardner: "Love is Nothing"'' (2006)
*''Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers'' (2002)
* ''Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't Care"'' (2001)
* ''Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers'' (2001)
* ''Asian Pop Cinema: Bombay to Tokyo'' (1999)
* ''The Big Book of Noir'' (1998)
* ''Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955'' (1994)
* ''Sam Fuller: Film is a Battleground: A Critical Study, with Interviews, A Filmography, and a Bibliography'' (1994)
* ''Danger is My Business: An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines: 1896-1953'' (1993)
* ''Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures'' (1987)
References
External links
The Big Chat, Interview Series, Interview with: Lee Server
*Profile by Esther Cross, "Cuentame tu Vida", Buenos Aire
*''NY Times Book Review'', review by Peter Bogdanovic
*Lee Server Interviewed at Silver Screen Oasi
1953 births
2021 deaths
American male writers
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
{{US-writer-stub