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Playwright, copywriter, and screenwriter Robert E. Somerfeld died final week. He was 90.<\/em><\/p>\n Born in Chicago to Mary Somerfeld (n\u00e9e Rose) and Moses Somerfeld,<\/strong> Robert had his first After attending graduate college at UCLA, Robert went on to grow to be a Clio award-winning advert company copywriter in New York and Los Angeles. He had a strong freelance profession writing for main firms reminiscent of IBM, Mobil, and Pfizer. In 1963, he wrote the acclaimed brief movie Weekend Pass<\/em>, which launched his screenwriting profession. Throughout the Nineteen Sixties, he pitched, developed, and accomplished quite a few TV films (together with Love Hate Love<\/a><\/em> with Ryan O\u2019Neal and Lesley Ann Warren), function movies, and TV reveals. Rod Serling, a good friend and mentor, recalled Robert as \u201can enormous talent with an unerring sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n But he might have been finest often called an absurdist playwright of such one-act performs reminiscent of The Silent Men<\/em> (La MaMa<\/a>), The Projection Room<\/em> (Lucille Lortel Theatre<\/a>), and Yo Yo<\/em> (Ensemble Studio Theatre<\/a>), all produced in New York\u2019s Off- and Off-Off-Broadway circle within the late Nineteen Sixties and \u2019<\/strong>70s. Other theatre credit embody Richie<\/em> (Orpheum Theatre, 1980) and Whistler\u2019s Mummy <\/em>(a staged studying with Kathleen Chalfant, directed by David Schweitzer, at Playwrights Horizons<\/a> in 2007).<\/p>\n Honors and awards embody the distinguished Audrey Wood National Playwriting Award for his first full-length play, Hugger, Mugger<\/em> (1976), and the Dramatists Guild Playwriting Award for Revelation Pie<\/em> (1990). His 40+ performs had been carried out internationally, with favorable opinions in The New York Times<\/em>, the L.A. Times<\/em> and the Village Voice<\/em>. He was a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, the Westport Theatre Group, and the Circle Rep Playwright Project, and was a faithful mentor to many younger playwrights and screenwriters. He additionally taught writing to blind and low-vision college students at NYC\u2019s Lighthouse Guild<\/a>. Richard Kostelanetz, creator of the guide, The End of Intelligent Writing<\/a><\/em>, known as Somerfeld \u201cone of the most interesting recent playwrights.\u201d<\/p>\n He is survived by his spouse of 53 years, author Nancy Swallow Somerfeld, his two daughters (additionally writers), Gretchen Somerfeld and Erika Somerfeld, and his stepson, Jesse Daughtrey.<\/p>\n Gretchen Somerfeld is an NYU Tisch graduate and screenwriter whose work focuses on historic drama, in addition to adaptation. Secret Weapon<\/em>, her screenplay on actress\/inventor Hedy Lamarr, has obtained the Alfred P. Sloan award, the Writers Lab\/Meryl Streep honor, inclusion within the Film Independent Writers Lab, and obtained a staged studying on the Hamptons International Film Festival.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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manufacturing as knowledgeable author at age 13 with Junior Junction<\/em> at ABC Radio Network. He authored prize-winning books on psychological magic in 1951 and 1952 and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1953, the place he edited a school humor journal and performed school basketball.<\/p>\n