David Seidler

Born in England and raised in Long Island, NY, David Seidler suffered from stuttering as a boy. He found inspiration from the wartime radio broadcasts of Britain's King George VI, who had also suffered from and overcome the same speech impediment. Seidler underwent years of speech therapy until he was 16, when his stuttering went away on its own. Now liberated, he began his career as a writer on the family adventure series "Adventures of the Seaspray" (ABC Australia, 1965-67). Seidler moved on to writing for American television, including an episode of the daytime series "Another World" (NBC, 1964-1999), as well as made-for-TV films such as "Malice in Wonderland" (CBS, 1985) with Elizabeth Taylor, and the war drama "My Father, My Son" (CBS, 1988). Seidler won his first Writers Guild Award for the biopic "Onassis: The Richest Man in the World" (ABC, 1988) starring Raul Julia as the Greek shipping magnate.Seidler made a leap to feature film writing in 1988 with "Tucker: The Man and His Dream." The Francis Ford Coppola-directed/George Lucas-produced drama followed the rise and fall of American auto designer and entrepreneur Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges), and his contributions to the automobile industry. With a knack for writing about real-life characters, Seidler penned the made-for-TV film "Whose Child Is This? The War for Baby Jessica" (ABC, 1993), based on the real-life and highly publicized court battle between a baby girl's biological parents and the couple who had raised her for over two years. Seidler also ventured into less serious projects in the late 1990s, writing scripts for animated features such as "Quest for Camelot" (1998) and "The King and I" (1999), as well as the musical comedy, "Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story" (ABC, 1999). The writer also had a long-running working relationship with the late actor David Carradine, who starred in the Seidler-penned action dramas "By Dawn's Early Light" (2000), "Son of the Dragon" (2006), and "Kung Fu Killer" (2008). Even though Seidler overcame stuttering as a teen, the agony of growing up with the condition remained with him and continued to haunt him for most of his life. He found an opportunity to release his emotional battle with his childhood disability by writing "The King's Speech," a historical drama about Prince Albert (Colin Firth), whose stuttering troubled him as he prepared to take on the British throne. Geoffrey Rush played the speech therapist who helped the prince overcome his crippling stammer in time for his crowning as King George VI. "The King's Speech" premiered at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival and received a standing ovation. Seidler later revealed in interviews that it was a profound moment for someone who grew up with a stuttering condition, and for the first time in his life, he felt as if his true voice had finally been heard. The film received rave reviews from audiences and critics who called it a frontrunner for winning major award shows. For his brilliant writing of "The King's Speech," Seidler earned a Golden Globe nomination and an Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay. David Seidler died on March 16, 2024 in New Zealand.