Charles Thomas Cole (April 8, 1933 – February 23, 2009) was a playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the screenplay for ''

Smooth Talk ''Smooth Talk'' is a 1985 film directed by Joyce Chopra, loosely based on Joyce Carol Oates' short story " Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (1966), which was in turn inspired by the Tucson murders committed by Charles Schmid. The p ...

''.

Biography

Charles Thomas Cole was born in 1933 in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Dwight H. Johnson, an African-American

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

veteran who had won the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

for valor in combat and was shot and killed by police in 1971 while holding up a Detroit convenience store, became the impetus for ''Medal of Honor Rag'', a two-character play that fictionalized the story as a confrontation set at an Army Hospital in 1971 between Dale Jackson, a troubled African-American war hero and a white psychiatrist who specializes in "impacted grief". First produced in Boston and Washington, DC at the Folger Theater, it was staged at the Theater De Lys in New York in 1976 with Howard Rollins as Johnson and David Clennon as the psychiatrist. In his review in The Washington Post, Richard Cox described the play as "extraordinary in concept and performance"; The New York Times' critic, Clive Barnes, wrote that "It is a remarkably effective, strong and harrowing play." ''Medal of Honor Rag ''was a nominee for both the Drama Desk and Obie Awards before moving on to regional theaters across the country. A television version of the play was broadcast in April 1982 on PBS's American Playhouse, directed by

Lloyd Richards Lloyd George Richards (June 29, 1919 – June 29, 2006) was a Canadian-American theatre director, and actor. While head of the National Playwrights Conference, he helped cultivate many of the most famous theater writers of the 20th century. He ...

and produced by

Joyce Chopra Joyce Chopra (; born October 27, 1936) is an American director. She was married to American stage and screenwriter Tom Cole until his death on February 23, 2009. Life and career Chopra was one of three siblings born in New York City to Abraham ...

. Cole translated "Letter to a Teacher" from the Italian (Random House, 1970) and two works of theater from the Russian: Ostrovsky's "The Forest," commissioned and produced by the

Milwaukee Repertory Theater Milwaukee Repertory Theater ("Milwaukee Rep") is a theater company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded as the Fred Miller Theatre Company, the group is housed in the Associated Bank Theater Center, which includes the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater, th ...

in 1984 and Gogol's novel, "Dead Souls," which he also adapted for the American stage, drawing in part from Bulgakov's Moscow Art Theatre version. "Dead Souls" had full-scale productions at the Milwaukee Rep and Trinity Square in Providence, and was published by the Theatre Communications Group in its anthology New Plays USA 1, in 1982. ''Fighting Bob'', a play about progressive

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Robert Marion La Follette Sr. (June 14, 1855June 18, 1925), nicknamed "Fighting Bob," was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the 20th governor of Wisconsin from 1901 to 1906. ...

, premiered in 1979 by the Milwaukee Rep. The play was performed

Off Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

at the

Astor Place Theatre The Astor Place Theatre is an off-Broadway house at 434 Lafayette Street in the NoHo section of Manhattan, New York City. The theater is located in the historic Colonnade Row, originally constructed in 1831 as a series of nine connected buildin ...

in 1981. In his review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

Mel Gussow Melvyn Hayes "Mel" Gussow (; December 19, 1933 – April 29, 2005) was an American theater critic, movie critic, and author who wrote for ''The New York Times'' for 35 years. Biography Gussow was born in New York City and grew up in Rockville ...

called the play "stubbornly undramatic", with "facts, figures, excerpts from press reports" normally printed in the program of a historical play spoken in the performance. '' About Time'' debuted in 1990 at the John Houseman Theater, a two-character play about an elderly couple, identified only as Old Man and Old Woman, arguing about matters around the subject of death. Directed by Tony Giordano, the play's original production starred

James Whitmore James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two Ac ...

and

Audra Lindley Audra Lindley (September 24, 1918 – October 16, 1997) was an American actress, most famous for her role as landlady Helen Roper on the sitcom '' Three's Company'' and its spin-off '' The Ropers''. Life and career Audra Lindley was born in L ...

, described in a

review as an "endearing couple" who "act their way through and around the slight play that Tom Cole has created for them". The New Yorker's John Simon wrote, "There is much that is funny and true in "About Time": some if it in the writing, some of it in Tony Giordano's direction, and a whole lot in the acting. The long and the short of it is that whatever the longeurs and other shortcomings of Cole's play, you care for these people; you wish them solace in their sexual games and even paltrier verbal scurrilities". Lindley and Whitmore had been married to each other and divorced in 1979, yet continued to perform with each other on stage. Cole's collaboration with Joyce Chopra in film began in 1970 with "Present Tense", adapted from Thomas Mann's "Disorder and Early Sorrow" and televised nationally on WNET Playhouse. Their documentaries, "Joyce At 34" and "Martha Clarke Light & Dark: A Dancer's Journal" also appeared on PBS. He wrote the screenplay for the 1985 film ''

'', based on the 1966 short story '' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'' by

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels ''Black ...

. The film told the story of a teenage girl exploring her sexual identity, whose portrayal by

Laura Dern Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967) is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and five Golden Globe Awards. Born ...

helped bring her to fame in what was the surprise hit of that year's

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

where it won the Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic feature. The film, directed by Joyce Chopra, won acclaim for its portrayal of Dern's character and her awkward transition to adulthood. Writing in The New York Times, film critic Vincent Canby wrote that "Joyce Chopra, the director, and Tom Cole, who wrote the screenplay, have made ''Smooth Talk'' a remarkably fine film about the muddle of emotions that separates the child from the adult. Though Miss Chopra and Mr. Cole have expanded the story, and supplied information Miss Oates saw fit to leave out, ''Smooth Talk'' is as spare and lean as the source material. In this age of movies designed to satisfy teen-agers' fantasies about themselves, ''Smooth Talk'' has the shock value of ''The Grapes of Wrath'' seen among a bunch of not-great screwball comedies of the Depression era. It's funny, but there's also something menacing about it, like the high, thin clouds that always seem to be neutralizing the light but not the heat of the Marin County summer sun."

Death

Cole died at age 75 on February 23, 2009 of

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibody, antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone ...

at his home in

Roxbury, Connecticut Roxbury is a New England town, town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 2,260 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The town is located northeast of New York City, and is p ...

. He was survived by his wife, Joyce Chopra, and a daughter. An earlier marriage to Ellen Nurnberg ended in divorce.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Tom 1933 births 2009 deaths American male screenwriters 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Deaths from cancer in Connecticut Deaths from multiple myeloma in the United States Harvard College alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty People from Roxbury, Connecticut Writers from Paterson, New Jersey United States Army soldiers Defense Language Institute alumni American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers Screenwriters from Massachusetts Screenwriters from New Jersey Screenwriters from Connecticut 20th-century American screenwriters