Mad As Hell: The Life and Work of Paddy Chayefsky
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That Paddy Chayefsky was the greatest writer ever to emerge from television's fabled "Golden Age" is unquestionable. But that his work for television, theatre, and film firmly places him alongside his most heralded contemporaries - Arthur Miller, William Inge, and Tennessee Williams - is the compelling thesis of Mad as Hell: The Life and Work of Paddy Chayefsky by Shaun Considine. In Considine's exhaustively researched biography of Chayefsky, we examine the formative roots of the only individual screenwriter ever to win three Academy Awards (for Marty, The Hospital, and Network). From his boyhood in the Bronx to his tumultuous years in Hollywood, Chayefsky emerges here as an ambitious man, devoted in his friendships, hesitant and shy in romance, yet fierce and exacting as a creative force. His genius for capturing the American vernacular elicited classic performances by such legends as Bette Davis, Kim Stanley, and George C. Scott, and his larger-than-life personality garnered him close relationships with such varied notables as Laurence Olivier, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Bob Fosse, and playwright Herb Gardner. And for each friendship there also seemed to be a fight: Chayefsky's vengeful brawl with Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, his tempestuous struggles with Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster, Zero Mostel, and Ken Russell, and his politically charged hatred for Vanessa Redgrave are just a few of the conflicts detailed here. Throughout his fifty-eight years, Paddy Chayefsky was a man in search of understanding - of both himself and his changing world. Unhappily, a sense of fulfillment and of his own identity would remain beyond his grasp until his final days. His hopeful optimism in the 1950s evolved into a resolutely skeptical view of contemporary life, as he confronted in his scripts the military, the medical and television industries, and even man's relationship to God. In Mad as Hell, Shaun Considine gives us, at last, a full picture of a unique latte Publishers Weekly Considine ( Bette & Joan: The Divine Feud ) has written an engrossing and lively biography of the late screenwriter, the only one to win three Oscars--for Marty, Hospital and Network . Chayefsky (1923-1981) also wrote the screenplays for other notable films, such as Altered States , the hallucinatory melodrama that made William Hurt famous, as well as Broadway comedies and dramas. Yet he got his start writing for TV-- Marty originated as a one-hour episode of ``Philco Television Playhouse''--and the chapters detailing the early days of the medium are particularly engrossing. Chayefsky--initially the ``poet of the streets'' whose Marty reflected his profound insecurity--worked with such personalities as Bob Fosse, Marilyn Monroe, Zero Mostel, Tyrone Guthrie and Ken Russell. Considine's characterization of his subject as a man split in two is facile; he plays off ``Paddy''--scrappy, Bronx-bred--with ``Sidney''--devout, artistic, intellectual. Nonetheless, the ups and downs of Chayefsky's varied career make for consistently entertaining reading. Photos not seen by PW. (July)
IntroductionxiPart 1The Formative Years1.Parental Influences32.Paddy Goes to War203.The Lure of the Dream Factories304.More Serious Intentions395.Marty: A Television Classic516.The Golden Age of Television597.Marty: The Motion Picture698.A Primer in Movie Economics789.Upward Mobility8810.The First Oscar9711.Contention on Broadway11012.Writing the Script12013.Paddy the Producer12914."A Real Octopus, That Man"14115.Psychiatric Assistance14916.The Tempest Continues16017.Middle of the Night: The Movie16618.Using the Anger178Part 2A Decade of Adversity19.Cudgeling Among the Literati19520.Political Gleanings20921.Chayfesky's Russian Revolution22522.Further Negation23623.Inactivity and Diversion24324.A Return to the Theatre25125.Sabotage and Betrayal in the Provinces258Part 3A Splendid Comeback26.The Hospital27127.Personal Alignments28828.Chayefsky the Activist29829.Network30330.Casting and Production31531.Behind Closed Doors33232.Tutelage and Chastisement34033.A Plethora of Proposals34734.Altered States: The Obsession Continues35735.The Titans Collide36636.The War Within37737.A Final Drama and Divulgence38538.Epitaph for a Playwright397Acknowledgments401Bibliography405Author's Addendum409Index411
