John Briley
| John Briley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Richard Briley August 25, 1925 Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Birmingham |
| Occupation | Screenwriter |
John Richard Briley (b. August 25, 1925) is an American writer best known for screenplays of biographical films. He won the Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay at the 1982 Oscars for Gandhi. As well as film scripts, he has written for television and theatre, and published several novels.
Briley was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and served in the United States Air Force, 1943–46, reaching the rank of captain. At the University of Michigan, he gained a BA in 1950 and an MA in English 1951. He married Dorothy Louise Reichart in 1950, and they had four children. He worked in public relations for General Motors before rejoining the air force in 1955. He was posted to RAF Northolt airbase at South Ruislip near London, where he was director of orientation activities and started writing.
In 1960, he earned a PhD in Elizabethan drama from the University of Birmingham, left the air force and became a staff writer with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood. He left MGM in 1964. He also had an uncredited part in the 1965 comedy Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious.
Briley's 1972 script for Pope Joan had attracted the interest of Richard Attenborough, although Attenborough was ultimately not involved in that project, and the film was critically panned. Several scripts for Attenborough's Gandhi project had been rejected, and Robert Bolt was scheduled to rewrite his own earlier draft when he suffered a stroke. Attenborough then turned to Briley. Briley shifted the focus of the narrative away from the point of view of the British colonists to that of the Indian independence movement. He originally opposed Ben Kingsley in the title role, favouring John Hurt, but was later glad that Attenborough had gone with Kingsley. Briley envisaged more emphasis on the relationship between Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, but Kingsley's towering performance came to dominate the finished film. Briley claims he and Attenborough were personally satisfied with the movie and unconcerned about any critical and commercial success. In the event, Briley's original screenplay won the Oscar and the Golden Globe. Attenborough later said of Briley, "He's a difficult bugger, a bit of a prima-donna, but the bastard's brilliant".
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