User:Joshwand/sandbox/Jerrold Freedman

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Jerrold Freedman (aka J.F. Freedman) is an award-winning film-maker and international best-selling author.

As a film-maker, he has written, directed, and produced numerous television and theatrical movies and television series, including The X-Files, Kojak, The Bold Ones, and Night Gallery, and the pilot for the original MacGyver.

Writing under his initials, J. F. Freedman, he has published a dozen novels which have been translated into more than twenty languages and have sold over a million copies.

Early Life and Education

Jerrold Frank Freedman was born on October 29, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the oldest of three children; his brother is David Freedman, a lawyer, and his sister is Sara Freedman, an educator.

In 1947, the Freedman family relocated to the town of Bladensburg, in Prince Georges County, Maryland. Freedman attended the local schools for twelve years, graduating from high school in 1959. He then went to the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a BA in English Literature and an MA in Communications from the university’s Annenberg School of Communication. As an undergraduate he shared the school’s creative writing award with MacArthur Genius Grant winner John Edgar Wideman. One of his classmates and friends at Annenberg was famed photographer Mary Ellen Mark. During his time at Annenberg, Freedman directed public service programs at television station WHYY. After graduation he served in the U.S. Army as a medical lab technician, stationed at Ft. Knox, KY.

Television and Movies

After leaving the Army, Freedman was hired by the head of Universal Studios, Lew Wasserman, to be a television production trainee. Among his mentors were renowned film-maker John Cassavetes, director Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke), producer Roy Huggins (Maverick, The Fugitive), and Emmy and Academy Award-winning writer Abby Mann (Judgment at Nuremberg, Atlanta Child Murders). Four years later, Sidney Sheinberg, head of Universal Television, selected Freedman to produce The Protectors, part of The Bold Ones television cycle. At that time he was the youngest producer in television.

When The Protectors ended, Freedman wrote the pilot script for the television series The Psychiatrist. The teleplay was nominated for an Emmy for Best Writing for a Drama Series. Freedman produced the series. He also wrote and directed episodes of the show, one of which, Par For The Course, which he co-wrote with his associate producer, Bo May, won the Writer’s Guild of America award for best dramatic episode. During that period Freedman also wrote and directed episodes of The Senator, Night Gallery and Kojak.

(Par For The Course was directed by a young friend of Freedman’s, Steven Spielberg. They met when Spielberg was seventeen. A few years later, Spielberg signed a long-term directing deal with Universal. After directing a segment of the Night Gallery pilot, Spielberg wasn’t able to get other producers to hire him, until Freedman did for The Psychiatrist. From there Spielberg went on to direct the landmark television movie Duel, which led to his association with the Zanuck/Brown production company, and Jaws followed.)

After leaving Universal, Freedman wrote, directed, and produced over twenty theatrical and television films. Among the notable actors Freedman directed were Robert Mitchum, Charles Bronson, Ben Johnson, Eli Wallach, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook, Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth McGovern, Matt Dillon, Robert Urich, Wilford Brimley, and Geraldine Page.

Literary Career

In 1987, Freedman took a creative writing extension course at UCSB. Over the next three years, when not working on television and film projects, Freedman completed the novel he’d started in the class. In 1990, Against The Wind was sold to Penguin Books after a spirited auction ^[1]. An article in the Wall Street Journal stated that the advance payment Against The Wind was the highest ever given to a first-time novelist. It became an international best-seller. Since then, Freedman has published many highly-regarded best-selling books, including House Of Smoke, The Disappearance, Above The Law, and Bird’s-Eye View. His most recent book, The Deer Killer, was published in 2020.

Personal Life

Freedman and his wife, award-winning novelist Christine Bell (The Perez Family, Grievance), live on the central California coast.

Books

Year	Title
2020	The Deer Killer
2014	Turn Left at Doheny
2008	In My Dark Dreams
2006	A Killing in the Valley
2003	Fallen Idols
2001	Bird's-Eye View
2000	Above the Law
1998	The Disappearance
1997	Key Witness
1996	House of Smoke
1994	The Obstacle Course
1991	Against the Wind

Film and Television

Awards

Year	Award	Work	Nominated/Won
1971	Primetime Emmy - Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama	The Psychiatrist (1970)	Nominated
1972	Writers Guild of America Award - Episodic Drama	The Psychiatrist (1970)	Won
1974	Edgar Allan Poe Awards - Best Television Episode	Kojak (1973)	Nominated

Director

Year	Type	Title	Notes
1995	TV Movie	The O.J. Simpson Story	(as Alan Smithee)
1993-1994	TV Series	The X-Files	(2 episodes)
1992	TV Movie	Condition: Critical
1990	TV Movie	Goodnight Sweet Wife: A Murder in Boston
1989	TV Movie	Night Walk
1989	TV Movie	The Comeback
1988	TV Movie	Unholy Matrimony
1987	TV Movie	Family Sins
1986	Film	Native Son
1986	TV Movie	Thompson's Last Run
1986	TV Series	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	(1 episode)
1985	TV Series	MacGyver	(1 episode)
1985	TV Movie	Seduced
1984	TV Movie	Best Kept Secrets
1984	TV Movie	The Seduction of Gina
1983	TV Movie	Legs
1982	TV Movie	Victims
1980	Film	Borderline
1980	TV Movie	The Boy Who Drank Too Much
1979	TV Movie	The Streets of L.A.
1979	TV Movie	Some Kind of Miracle
1978	TV Movie	Lawman Without a Gun
1974	TV Movie	The Last Angry Man
1973	TV Movie	Blood Sport
1973	TV Movie	A Cold Night's Death
1972	Film	Kansas City Bomber

Writer

1983	TV Movie	Legs
1980	Film	Borderline
1978	TV Movie	Lawman Without a Gun
1978	TV Movie	Betrayal
1973	TV Series	Kojak	(story - 1 episode, 1977) (written by - 1 episode, 1973)
1973	TV Movie	Blood Sport
1972	TV Series	Jigsaw
1971	TV Series	Night Gallery	(teleplay - 1 episode)
1970	TV Series	The Psychiatrist	(2 episodes, 1971) (teleplay - 1 episode, 1970)
1971	TV Series	The Bold Ones: The Senator	(writer - 1 episode)
1969-1970	TV Series	The Bold Ones: The Protectors	(story - 2 episodes)

Producer

References

^ Reynolds, Christopher (6 September 1991). "Writes of Passage : It Looks As If Director Jerry Freedman Has Another Hit: His Novel". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 6 August 2020.

External links

[latimes-1] Reynolds, Christopher (6 September 1991). "Writes of Passage : It Looks As If Director Jerry Freedman Has Another Hit: His Novel". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 6 August 2020.

[1]