David Seidler (born 1937) is a British-American playwright and film and television writer.
He is most known for writing the scripts for the
stage version and
screen version for the story ''The King's Speech''. For the film, he won the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...
and a
BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.
Early life and family
Seidler was born in London, where he spent his early childhood. He grew up in an upper-middle class Jewish family.
[Naomi Pfefferman (23 November 2010)]
Screenwriter's stammer inspires 'Speech'
''Jewish Journal'' His mother
Doris was a print-maker and graphic artist. His father Bernard was a fur broker who bought bales of pelts on commission. He had an office in New York City. When the Seidler family's apartment in London was bombed during
the Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, they relocated to
Lingfield in Surrey. Later in the war, the family resettled in America. The ship they sailed on was a member of a convoy of three ships; on the way one of these, carrying Italian prisoners-of-war from North Africa, was sunk by German
U-boats
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
. It was on the voyage to the US that Seidler developed a
stammer, before he celebrated his third birthday.
[
Seidler subsequently grew up in ]Long Island, New York
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18t ...
. Seidler believes that his stutter might have been a response to the emotional trauma of the war. Thinking it would make others feel uncomfortable, as a teenager he often chose to keep quiet.
Numerous forms of speech therapy failed him, until, at 16, he had a breakthrough. "I resolved that if I was going to stutter for the rest of my life, people were going to be stuck listening to me. I had been depressed, but now I was angry – I decided I deserved to be heard." That is when, in rage he spoke the 'F' word, or "naughty word" as he recalled decades later. Two weeks later he auditioned for his school play, Shaw's ''Androcles and the Lion
Androcles ( el, Ἀνδροκλῆς, alternatively spelled Androclus in Latin), is the main character of a common folktale about a man befriending a lion.
The tale is included in the Aarne–Thompson classification system as type 156. The ...
'' and even got a small role, of a Christian getting eaten by a lion. In 2005, he used it in a scene in his stage play about George VI. Seidler later attended Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...
, where he graduated with an A.B. in English in 1959.
As he grew older he decided to write and his first work was ''The Adventures of a Penny'' about a penny's travel from hand to hand. In an interview Seidler recalled George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of I ...
as a childhood hero, who gave him hope as he listened to his wartime speeches as a child, encouraged by his parents, "David, he was a much worse stutterer than you, and listen to him now. He's not perfect. But he can give these magnificent, stirring addresses that rallied the free world." they would say.
Career
Seidler arrived in Hollywood at the age of 40, and his first job there was writing '' Tucker: The Man and His Dream'' for Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five ...
. For some years he was a member of the Feather & Seidler writing team with Jacqueline Feather.
Always wanting to write about George VI, and being a stutterer himself, Seidler started researching in the 1970s. After finding the surviving son of Lionel Logue, Dr. Valentine Logue, now a retired brain surgeon, he wrote him in 1981. In turn, Logue was keen to talk with Seidler and even share the notebooks his father kept while treating the King, but on the condition that he received "written permission from the Queen Mother
A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also used to describe a number of ...
" first. Upon writing to her, Seidler received a reply from her private secretary, asking him not to pursue the project during her lifetime. Consequently, Seidler abandoned the project in 1982.
The Queen Mother died in 2002, but Seidler didn't start the work until 2005, when he suffered from throat cancer, and returned to the story during a bout of creative work it inspired. Eventually, he wrote the first draft of his screenplay, and his then-wife and writing partner suggested that he rewrite it as a stage play, as an exercise. She felt that the "physical confines of the stage would force him to focus on the key relationships in the story, without the distractions imposed by concern for cinematic technique."[ In 2011 Seidler won a BAFTA award for Best Original Screenplay, and later an ]Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...
for Best Original Screenplay for the film ''The King's Speech
''The King's Speech'' is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and langua ...
''.
When writing the script, Seidler discovered that his own uncle, also named David and also a stutterer, had been sent to see Lionel Logue by his father (Seidler's grandfather).[
]
Personal life
In late 2005 Seidler was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but as of 2011, he was in remission.
Writing credits
Awards and nominations
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Seidler, David
1937 births
Living people
British male screenwriters
British television writers
English Jews
Cornell University alumni
American male screenwriters
Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners
Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
Jewish American writers
Writers from London
People from Long Island
American television writers
American male television writers
21st-century American Jews