Susan Carol Shadburne (December 16, 1942April 24, 2018) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, and filmmaker, best known for her collaborations with her husband,

claymation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

animator

Will Vinton William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Academy Awards, Os ...

. She wrote the screenplay for '' The Adventures of Mark Twain'' (1985), directed by Vinton, and wrote and directed the supernatural thriller film ''

Shadow Play Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim (material), ...

'' (1986). In addition to feature films, Shadburne wrote and directed several

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s. Two of the short films Shadburne wrote that Vinton directed—''Rip Van Winkle'' (1978) and '' The Great Cognito'' (1983) –were nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

Biography

Shadburne was born and raised in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1960. She later attended

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Shadburne began writing films in 1978 while married to animator

, first a documentary short about Vinton's filmmaking process titled ''Claymation: Three Dimensional Clay Animation''. She subsequently wrote the screenplay for Vinton's short film ''Rip Van Winkle'' (1978), which was nominated for the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for

Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

. In 1982, she again wrote the screenplay for Vinton's short '' The Great Cognito'', which was again nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. She collaborated with Vinton on the 1985 animated feature '' The Adventures of Mark Twain''. Shadburne researched

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

extensively while writing the screenplay, adapting it from his autobiography and integrating direct quotes from him into the dialogue. The following year, she wrote, produced, and directed the supernatural thriller film ''

'' (1986) starring

Dee Wallace Deanna Wallace (née Bowers), also known as Dee Wallace Stone (born December 14, 1948), is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Mary Taylor in the 1982 Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbuster science-fiction film ''E.T. the E ...

and

Cloris Leachman Cloris Leachman (April 30, 1926 – January 27, 2021) was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nearly eight decades. She received many accolades including 22 Primetime Emmy nominations and won eight, tying Julia Louis-Dreyfus ...

. In her later life, Shadburne worked as a

medical intuitive A medical intuitive is an alternative medicine practitioner who claims to be able to use their intuitive abilities to find the cause of a physical or emotional condition through the use of insight rather than modern medicine. Other terms for such ...

and energy healer.

Death

Shadburne died on April 24, 2018, in

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...

, aged 75, after a decades-long battle with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

Filmography

Accolades

References

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shadburne, Susan 1942 births 2018 deaths American women film directors American women film producers American women screenwriters Filmmakers from Portland, Oregon Lincoln High School (Portland, Oregon) alumni Stanford University alumni People with multiple sclerosis Writers from Portland, Oregon 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American writers American writers with disabilities Film directors with disabilities