Denne Bart Petitclerc
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| Born: | May 15, 1929, Montesano, Washington,  United States. |
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| Died: | February 6, 2006. Los Angeles, California. |
| Occupation: | Novelist, Journalist, War Correspondent, Producer, and Screenwriter. |
| Spouse: | Wanda Petitclerc, 1970-2006. |
Denne Bart Petitclerc was a journalist, war correspondent, novelist, producer and screenwriter. He was born on May 15, 1929 in Montesano, Washington and lived in Ketchum, Idaho the last thirty-five years of his life.
He died on February 6, 2006 in Los Angeles due to complications from lung cancer.
Petitclerc was led to Ketchum, Idaho by Ernest Hemingway who moved there in the early 1960s.
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[edit] Biography
According to Petitclerc's obituary in the Los Angeles Times when he was five years old his father, Edmund Petitclerc, took him to Seattle, supposedly to see the angel atop the Bon Marché department store Christmas tree. His father told young Denne to watch the angel and would be right back. Yet, he abandoned the family and never returned.[1]
His mother, Grace Petitclerc, née Meyers, abandoned with two children, decided to place Petitclerc and his older sister in an orphanage in San Jose in order to go to school. His mother would earn a doctorate and teach at UC Berkeley. She also wrote books about educating handicapped children.
[edit] Career
In the 1950s while living and working in Florida he wrote a fan letter to writer Ernest Hemingway. He received a response from Hemingway and they became friends. On one of their fishing trips Hemingway alluded to a yet unfinished book he believed would make a great film.
Later Petitclerc would adapt Hemingway’s novel and wrote the screenplay for the film Islands in the Stream.[2]
Petitclerc worked for several newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Miami Herald. In 1950, he became a Korean War correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle.
In the 1960s he wrote his first script for the television show Bonanza and soon was working on the long time series. He became the show’s executive story editor.
In 1969 he created for NBC Then Came Bronson, a one-hour drama television show about a motorcycle riding news reporter searching for the meaning of life. He also helped launch The High Chaparral (1967-1971) for NBC. He wrote the pilot and other episodes.[3]
Speaking of Petitclerc in the Los Angeles Times Peter Bart, editor in chief of Variety said, "He was a master at translating, keeping the essence of Hemingway's attitudes and ideas but framing them into lines that an actor could speak on the screen."
Petitclerc wrote several movies for television and the screenplay for the 1972 feature film Red Sun with Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune. Other credits include the television movies Key West, Men of the Dragon, The Woman Who Sinned, The Vivero Letter and The Cowboy and The Ballerina.
In 1969, Petitclerc donated his collection of Hemingway's letters to Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California.
According to Variety at the time of his death he was working on Papa, a film based on his relationship with Hemingway. When he died the film was in development.
[edit] Award nomination
- Islands in the Stream (1974). The Writers Guild of America nominated Petitclerc for his screenplay adaptation of Hemingway’s novel.
[edit] Books
- Rage of Honor. Doubleday: 1966.
- Le Mans 24. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: 1971. ISBN 0151498202.
- Destinies. Simon and Schuster: 1981. (Co-author Peter Bart.) ISBN 0671246771.
[edit] Trivia
- His book Le Mans 24 was a novelization of the film Le Mans starring Steve McQueen.
[edit] References
- ^ Nelson, Valerie J. Los Angeles Times, Obituary, February 25, 2006.
- ^ Associated Press. Obituary, February 27, 1996.
- ^ IMDb film and television data base.
