David Adams Berry (July 8, 1943 – December 16, 2016) was an American

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. He is best known for his stage play '' The Whales of August'' and its 1987 screen adaptation, for which he also wrote the screenplay.

Biography

Berry was born in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Berry's first play, ''

G. R. POINT ''G. R. Point'' is a play about the Vietnam War by the American playwright and Vietnam war veteran David Berry. The ''G.R.'' in the title stands for " Graves Registration", with the play focusing on soldiers whose task it is to package the dead ...

,'' won him an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

for Distinguished Playwriting and a Drama Desk Nomination for Best New American Play in 1977. The play was produced on Broadway in 1979, directed by William Devane and starring

Michael Moriarty Michael Moriarty (born April 5, 1941) is an American-Canadian actor and jazz musician. He received an Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for his first acting role on American television as a Nazi SS officer in the 1978 mini-series ''Holocaust'' ...

, Michael Jeter, and

Howard Rollins Howard Ellsworth Rollins Jr. (October 17, 1950 – December 8, 1996) was an American stage, film, and television actor. Howard Rollins was best known for his role as Andrew Young in 1978's ''King (TV miniseries), King'', George Haley in the 1979 ...

, Brent Jennings,

Lori Tan Chinn Lori Tan Chinn is an American actress and comedian. She was a recurring character in the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'' and currently stars as Awkwafina, Awkwafina's Grandma on Comedy Central's ''Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens'' (2020 ...

and others. Berry taught playwriting at the National Theatre Institute of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, as well as for the

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

, Consortium for Higher Education. In 2005, he began teaching screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He continued to write for both theatre and film. He died of a heart attack at the age of 73 on December 16, 2016, in Brooklyn, New York.

References

External links

* 1943 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male screenwriters American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers Writers from Denver {{US-screen-writer-1940s-stub