Stewart Henry Stern (born March 22, 1922) is a two-time Oscar-nominated and Emmy award winning American screenwriter. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the iconic film Rebel Without A Cause (1955), starring James Dean.
I personally didn't know that Jimmy was bisexual - if he was bisexual. But I don't think Jimmy believed in labels, he was curious about everyone and everything. [on James Dean]
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Fact
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Among Stern's last film credits was the aptly titled "The Last Movie," a 1971 collaboration with Dennis Hopper, who'd had a very small role in "Rebel Without a Cause." The quasi-Western was a huge critical and commercial flop. By the early 1980s Stern was finished with Hollywood. He "hated the fact that I'd left my friends and walked out on my career," he told the Seattle Times in 1996. "I knew, though, that if I was ever going to write again, it would have to come out of a different place." Stern moved to Seattle when his wife, ex-ballerina Marilee Stiles Stern, was invited to teach at the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
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Stewart Stern, who was born in New York City on March 22, 1922, grew up as a "sheltered Jewish doctor's boy" with artistic leanings. His father was medical director at the Paramount Film Studio, which was co-founded by Stewart's uncle, Adolph Zukor, his mother was a former actress. In "Going Through Splat: The Life and Work of Stewart Stern," a 2005 documentary directed by Jon Steven Ward, Stern tells of the pain of being an unwanted child -- his mother tried to abort him -- and the psychological suffering that drove him into decades of therapy. Stewart studied art at the University of Iowa, where he joined the ROTC. When World War II began, he entered the Army, fighting in the 106th Infantry Division. Friendships forged under the duress of battle taught him lessons that proved valuable in his screen-writing. He recalled in particular how he helped calm another soldier at the start of the Battle of the Bulge. "I knew that he liked to draw horses and cowboys," Stern said in a 1999 interview in the Michigan Quarterly, so "we stood in that trench full of freezing water with every-thing coming at us, and I showed him how to draw a horse in a rodeo scene. I learned in the Army that I didn't have to abandon who I was -- an artist. I discovered that everyone, no matter how much tough armor he's created around himself, is fundamentally, a sensitive, responsive person who needs just as much reassurance as the rest of us. And that gave me a great deal of strength and insight, and it also informed my writing of 'Rebel' -- especially this whole question of the masks we feel we need to wear in front of others -- and what exactly defines a 'man.'" Stern, who killed three German soldiers, survived an extreme case of frostbite and for a while was missing in action, was decorated for his service. After the war, Stern got his start in the movie business through family ties. Aside from Zukor, he was related to the Loews of the MGM Culver City Film Studio and the Loew's (MGM) movie theater chain. He met director Fred Zinnemann, who hired him to write "Benjy," his Oscar-winning 1951 short documentary about a disabled youngster. That led to Stern scripting Zinnemann's "Teresa," a 1951 film about a troubled American soldier that earned Stern his first Oscar nomination.
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Stewart Stern, a frequent lecturer at USC until he moved to Seattle in 1986, taught screen-writing at the University of Washington and at The-Film-School, a nonprofit institute he co-founded in 2005 with actor Tom Skerritt. Stern stressed to his students the importance of finding a personal connection to the stories they wanted to write for the screen. He said that was key to his success with the 1955 landmark, "Rebel Without a Cause." Stern related, "I realized it was a story about me, as everything I've ever done turned out to be," Stern, in a 2011 interview for the El Paso Times, said of his best-known work. "Rebel" was a portrait of juvenile delinquents and the family dysfunction that marred their prospects for happiness. The film starred James Dean, fresh from his success in "East of Eden," as a teenager whose efforts to fit in at his new school lead to tragedy.
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During more than a quarter-century in Hollywood, Stewart Stern became known for the psychological depth of his screen-writing. His credits include "Rachel, Rachel," a 1968 film directed by Paul Newman and starring Newman's wife Joanne Woodward as a lonely, repressed school teacher, and "Sybil," the 1976 television mini-series starring Sally Field as a woman suffering from multiple Personality disorder. "Sybil" brought him an EMMY for best dramatic writing in 1977, and "Rachel, Rachel" earned an Oscar nomination. Newman told the Seattle Times in 1996, "Stewart's words give an actor a kind of emotional depth that you can just ride on, like a wave. He certainly stacks up as one of the best in our business." Stern also wrote the screenplay for the Vietnam War-era 1963 film "The Ugly American, which starred Marlon Brando as the American ambassador in a Southeast Asian country torn by civil war, and the critically praised 1973 film "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams," also starring Joanne Woodward, who played a middle-aged home-maker in crisis.
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Meeting James Dean at a party at cousin Arthur Loew Jr.'s house, "Jimmy and I laughed at the same things and he'd try to shock me and vice-versa," Stern recalled in the Canadian newspaper Times Colonist. "He was just one of those people you find irresistible, but he could also be quite mischievous." They knew each other for barely a year before Dean died in a head-on collision on his way to Salinas on September 30, 1955, just before "Rebel" was released to movie theaters.
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Member of the Writers Guild of America West from 1951. Served on the guild's screen council branch between 1970 and 1972.
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Served in the 106th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during World War II, saw action in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, and Combat Infantry Badge.
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Taught screenwriting at the University of Washington's Extension Program during the 1990's.
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Graduated from the University of Iowa.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Rebel
2011/IV
Short
A Christmas to Remember
1978
TV Movie
Sybil
1976
TV Mini-Series teleplay - 2 episodes
The Glass Menagerie
1973
TV Movie screenplay
Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
1973
written by
The Last Movie
1971
screenplay / story
Rachel, Rachel
1968
screenplay
The Ugly American
1963
screen story / writer
The Outsider
1961
Thunder of Silence
1959
TV Movie
Thunder in the Sun
1959
writer
Playhouse 90
1958
TV Series written for TV - 1 episode
The James Dean Story
1957
Documentary written by
The Rack
1956
screenplay
Rebel Without a Cause
1955
screen play
Goodyear Playhouse
TV Series 1 episode, 1954 written by - 1 episode, 1954
The Gulf Playhouse
1953
TV Series teleplay - 1 episode
Benjy
1951
Short written by
Teresa
1951
screenplay / story
Miscellaneous
Title
Year
Status
Character
He Walked by Night
1948
dialogue director
Hollow Triumph
1948
dialogue director
The Amazing Mr. X
1948
dialogue director
The Cobra Strikes
1948
dialogue director
Man from Texas
1948
dialogue director
T-Men
1947
dialogue director
Railroaded!
1947
dialogue director
Stepchild
1947
dialogue director
Out of the Blue
1947
dialogue director
The Big Fix
1947
dialogue director
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Wyatt Steps Out
2012
Short
Voice Over
Fright Night
1985
Cook
Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess
1983
TV Movie
Writer
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
Fielding
Short special thanks pre-production
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
2012
the producers wish to thank
Here
2011/I
our deepest gratitude
Winter Leaves
2007
Short special thanks
Eagle vs Shark
2007
special thanks
American Experience
2005
TV Series documentary special thanks - 1 episode
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Stewart Stern Unwritten
2017
Documentary filming
Himself
American Masters
2005
TV Series documentary
Himself
Rescued from the Closet
2001
Video documentary
Himself
Stelle emigranti
1982
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The 87th Annual Academy Awards
2015
TV Special
Himself - Writer (In Memoriam)
Cinemassacre's Monster Madness
2010
TV Series documentary
Cook
The Celluloid Closet
1995
Documentary
Himself (uncredited)
Won Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
1979
WGA Award (TV)
Writers Guild of America, USA
Anthology Adaptation
A Christmas to Remember (1978)
1977
Primetime Emmy
Primetime Emmy Awards
Outstanding Writing in a Special Program - Drama or Comedy - Adaptation
Sybil (1976)
Nominated Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
1969
Oscar
Academy Awards, USA
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
$850,000
