Robert Getchell

Getchell was nominated for an Academy Award for his second produced screenplay as well, "Bound for Glory" (1976), the biographical film on the life of folk singer Woody Guthrie. It was several years before he had another script produced, that being the unfortunate "Mommie Dearest" (1981), based on Christine Crawford's account of life as the adopted daughter of Joan Crawford. Except for "Sunset Dreams" (1985), Getchell had no screenplays produced in the 80s, but made up for lost time in the 90s. He adapted the Stella Dallas story of a single mother who sacrifices her love for her daughter in "Stella" for Bette Midler (1990), and turned the French "La Femme Nikita" into the American "Point of No Return" (1993). That same year, Getchell masterfully adapted Tobias' Wolf's autobiography "This Boy's Life" into a screenplay, which launched the career of Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1994, Getchell and Art Linson co-wrote the adaptation of "The Client," the story of a poor white boy who witnesses a suicide and knows the victim's secret.