| Colin Higgins | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 28, 1941 Nouméa, New Caledonia, France |
| Died | August 5, 1988 (aged 47) Beverly Hills, California, United States |
| Occupation | Director, producer, actor, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1971-1987 |
Colin Higgins (July 28, 1941 – August 5, 1988) was an Australian-American screenwriter, actor, director, and producer. He was best known for writing the screenplay for the 1971 film Harold and Maude.[1] and for directing the films Foul Play (1978) and Nine to Five (1980).
Contents |
Higgins was born in Nouméa, New Caledonia to an Australian mother and American father. Higgins’ father enlisted in the army following the attack on Pearl Harbour, and his mother returned to her home in Sydney with Colin and his elder brother. Apart from a brief stint in San Francisco in 1945, Higgins lived in Sydney until 1957, mostly in the suburb of Hunters Hill, attending school at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview.
After moving to Redwood, California, Higgins attended Stanford University for a year, but then lost his scholarship "because I became so obsessed with theatre".[2] He moved to New York and hung around the Actors Studio but could not find work, so he became a page at the ABC television studios. He lost hope at becoming an actor and enlisted in the US Army, where he was sent to Germany and worked for Stars and Stripes newspaper. He was discharged in 1965, spent six months in Europe, mostly in Paris, then returned to Stanford University to study a BA in Creative Writing. While at college he supported himself as an actor, playing in small theatre productions, including acting in a sex farce called Once over Nightly for a year an a half. He then did a M.F.A. in screenwriting at UCLA, where his classmates included Paul Schrader. While there he made two short films, Opus One, a satire on student films, and Retreat, an anti-war statement. His M.F.A. thesis would serve as the basis for Harold and Maude (1971).[3]
After graduating he went to work for a rich man and his wife in Los Angeles as a part-time chauffeur and pool cleaner in exchange for free accommodation. The man was a film producer, Ed Lewis; Higgins showed a draft of Harold and Maude to him, and he showed it to Robert Evans at Paramount. Higgins wanted to direct the script himself and was allowed to do shoot a director's test for $7,000 but Paramount were not sufficiently impressed, and Hal Ashby was hired. Higgins collaborated well with Ashby and both were pleased with the final film, but it was not a large box-office success on original release.
Higgins got an offer to write a Movie of the Week for TV, The Devil's Daughter (1972), which he later described as "just a job".[4] He then received an offer from Jean-Louis Barrault in Paris to turn Harold and Maude into a play for French actor Madeleine Renaud. Higgins did so, working on the French translation with Jean-Claude Carriere, and the play ran for seven years.
While in Paris, Higgins met theatre director Peter Brook and worked with him as playwright-in-residence for his company. They did a play about mountain people in Uganda called The Ik which ran in Paris and London.
Higgins then wrote the script for the thriller Silver Streak (1976), which became a big hit under the direction of Arthur Hiller. (Higgins later said if he had directed it "I would have been a bit less faithful to the writer; I would have slashed away.")[5] The success of this enabled him to turn director with Foul Play (1978). He then wrote and directed Nine to Five (1980) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982).
In 1986, Higgins established the Colin Higgins Foundation in order to further his humanitarian goals.
Higgins, who was openly gay,[6] died of AIDS at his home on August 5, 1988[7] and was buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.
His brother is Australian actor, John Higgins.
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1978 | Foul Play |
| 1980 | Nine to Five |
| 1982 | The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1971 | Harold and Maude |
| 1973 | The Devil's Daughter |
| 1976 | Silver Streak |
| 1978 | Foul Play |
| 1980 | Nine to Five |
| 1982 | The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas |
| 1987 | Out on a Limb (TV) |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1971 | Harold and Maude |
| 1987 | Out on a Limb (TV) |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1985 | Into the Night |