Biography
This page uses content from the David Mamet biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, poet, essayist and novelist.
His theatre and film work is known for its clever, terse, and sometimes vulgar dialogue and his exploration of masculinity.
Biography
He was born to a Jewish family in Chicago.
Educated at the Francis W. Parker School and at Goddard College and a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company, Mamet first gained acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976, The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross, which received its first Broadway revival in the summer of 2005.
Mamet's famous ear for dialogue was in evidence from the first. He is not, however, simply a human tape-recorder; the dialogue is very obviously and precisely crafted for maximum poetic effect. It is the quality for which he has not only been almost universally praised, but which has made him the touchstone for any number of imitators. The attention given the dialogue has been so great that, in Writing in Restaurants, Mamet himself denigrated his (and other writers') early tendency to write "pretty" at the expense of sound, logical plots.
His work has developed over the years, then, primarily in his skill at sustaining longer plots, using tantalizing and even playful surprises. (He himself has expressed relief that he grew tired of writing short plays - largely exercises in dialogue - before the audience grew tired of attending them.)
Mamet's first screenplay was the 1981 production of The Postman Always Rings Twice based upon James M. Cain's novel. He won an Academy Award nomination for his next script, The Verdict.
In 1987 Mamet made his film directing debut with House of Games, starring his then-wife, Lindsay Crouse and a host of longtime stage associates. He remains a prolific writer and director, and has assembled an informal repertory company for his films, including William H. Macy, Joe Mantegna, Crouse, Rebecca Pidgeon (his wife since 1991), and Ricky Jay.
Like independent director John Sayles, Mamet funds his own films with the pay he gets from credited and uncredited rewrites of typically big-budget films. For instance, Mamet did a rewrite of the script for Ronin under a pseudonym, and turned in an early version of a script for Malcolm X that director Spike Lee rejected.
Three of Mamet's own films, House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner, and Heist have involved the world of con artists.
Mamet has published three novels, The Village in 1994, The Old Religion in 1997, and Wilson: a Consideration of the Sources in 2000. He has also written several non-fiction texts as well as a number of poems and children's stories. He was credited under the name "Richard Weisz" for Ronin.
In July 2004, Cambridge University Press published The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet, edited by Christopher Bigsby. The book includes essays analyzing Mamet's biography, his impact during various decades, and pieces on most of his work.
Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
He has also published a lauded version of the classical Faust story, Faustus, in 2004. However, the play, when staged in San Francisco during the spring of 2004, was not well received by the critics.
He is also the creator, producer and frequent writer of the television series The Unit, co-produced with friend Shawn Ryan of The Shield.
Family
Mamet and actress Lindsay Crouse were married from 1977 to 1990, and have two children together, Willa and Zosia. Since 1991, Mamet has been married to actress and singer-songwriter, Rebecca Pidgeon. They have two children, Clara and Noah.
Filmography
- Edmond (2006) [Writer]
- Spartan (2004) [Director] [Writer]
- Heist (2001) [Director] [Writer]
- Hannibal (2001) [Writer]
- Catastrophe (2000) [Director]
- Lakeboat (2000) [Writer]
- State and Main (2000) [Director] [Writer]
- The Winslow Boy (1999) [Director] [Writer]
- Ronin (1998) [Writer]
- Wag the Dog (1997) [Writer]
- The Spanish Prisoner (1997) [Director] [Writer]
- The Edge (1997) [Writer]
- American Buffalo (1996) [Writer]
- Oleanna (1994) [Director] [Writer]
- Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) [Writer]
- Hoffa (1992) [Writer] [Producer]
- Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) [Writer]
- Homicide (1991) [Director] [Writer]
- We're No Angels (1989) [Writer]
- Things Change (1988) [Director] [Writer]
- House of Games (1987) [Director] [Writer]
- The Untouchables (1987) [Writer]
- About Last Night... (1986) [Writer]
- The Verdict (1982) [Writer]
- The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) [Writer]
Plays
- Lakeboat (1970, revised 1980) [Writer]
- The Duck Variations (1972) [Writer]
- Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974) [Writer]
- Squirrels (1974) [Writer]
- American Buffalo (1975) [Writer]
- Reunion (1976) [Writer]
- The Water Engine (1976) [Writer]
- A Life in the Theatre (1977) [Writer]
- Revenge of the Space Pandas, or Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock (1978) [Writer]
- The Woods (1979) [Writer]
- Lakeboat (1980) [Writer]
- Edmond (1982) [Writer]
- The Frog Prince (1983) [Writer]
- Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) [Writer]
- The Shawl (1985) [Writer]
- Speed-the-Plow (1988) [Writer]
- Bobby Gould In Hell (1989) [Writer]
- Oleanna (1992) [Writer]
- The Cryptogram (1995) [Writer]
- Boston Marriage (1999) [Writer]
- Faustus (2004) [Writer]
- Romance (2005) [Writer]
- The Voysey Inheritance (2005)[ Writer - adaptation of an existing play by Harley Granville-Barker]
Books
- Writing in Restaurants (1987) (Essays) [Author]
- On Directing Film (1992) (Essays) [Author]
- The Village 1994 (Novel) [Author]
- Make-Believe Town: Essays and Remembraces (1996) (Essays) [Author]
- Three Uses of the Knife (1996) (Essays) [Author]
- The Old Religion (1997) (Novel) [Author]
- True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor (Essays) (1999) [Author]
- Wilson: a Consideration of the Sources (2000) (Novel) [Author]
- The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews, Schocken, 2006, ISBN 0805242074 (Essays) [Author]
External links
- David Mamet's writings and cartoons on the Huffington Post
- The David Mamet Society
- Interview at salon.com
- Book Review of True and False
- Book Review of The Wicked Son
- Book Review of The Wicked Son by an American academic
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
IGN RSS Feeds