Larry McMurtry was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for his novel, Lonesome Dove.
He has authored 40 books, both novels and essay collections, and has written over 30 screenplays. Several of his works have been adapted into feature films and television miniseries. His first novel was Horseman, Pass By. The book became Martin Ritt's Hud, adapted by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. and starring Paul Newman. The film won 3 Academy Awards: Best Actress (Patricia Neal), Best Supporting Actor (Melvyn Douglas), and Best Cinematography (James Wong Howe).
Mr. McMurtry's novel The Last Picture Show was made into a feature film by Peter Bogdanovich, with Mr. McMurtry receiving an Academy Award nomination for co-writing the screenplay adaptation with the director. The film won 2 Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actor (Ben Johnson) and Best Supporting Actress (Cloris Leachman), and was nominated for Best Picture.
His novel Terms of Endearment, was adapted into a movie, and directed, by James L. Brooks. The film won 5 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine), and Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson). The aforementioned Lonesome Dove was adapted by William D. Wittliff into a television miniseries directed by Simon Wincer. The program, one of the most popular miniseries of all time, won 7 Emmy Awards.
Mr. McMurtry began a writing collaboration with Diana Ossana in 1992. The team has written two novels together, Pretty Boy Floyd and Zeke and Ned. They adapted two of his novels, Streets of Laredo and Dead Man's Walk, into acclaimed miniseries, both of which they also executive-produced. The two miniseries were directed by Joseph Sargent and Yves Simoneau, respectively. The duo later adapted Frederick Manfred's novel Riders of Judgment into the miniseries Johnson County War, which they also executive-produced, and which was directed by David S. Cass Sr.
Tom Hanks is slated to star in, and produce, the Universal Pictures film version of Mr. McMurtry's novel Boone's Lick, for which the author and Ms. Ossana are writing the screenplay adaptation.
Among his other novels are Moving On, All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers, Somebody's Darling, The Desert Rose, Film Flam, Loop Group, and The Colonel and Little Missie: The Beginnings of Superstardom in America. His essay collections include Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen, Roads, and Paradise. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.
Mr. McMurtry was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, and raised in Archer City. His father and eight uncles were all ranchers. He attended North Texas State and Rice Universities, and was also a Stegner fellow at Stanford University.
Focus Features
