Douglas McGrath, screenwriter, actor and director nominated for the Oscars and the Tony Awards, died on Thursday, November 3 in New York.
As Variety reported via a New York Times report, Douglas McGrath died of a heart attack on Thursday, November 3, 2022. He was 64 years old.
Born in Texas, the future director grew up there before moving to New Jersey to enter Princeton. Is the Saturday Night Live that he began his career in 1980, alongside actors such as Chevy Chase, Laurie Metcalf and Al Franken.
Douglas McGrath later earned a few writer and producer credits on shows such as Los Angeles Law in 1989 and The Steven Banks Show in 1991 before finally turning to feature films.
It was in 1993 that he signed his first screenplay: this was the start of a prolific career in the field. It was that of the film When the Spirit Comes to Women directed by Luis Mandoki with Melanie Griffith, John Goodman and Don Johnson. His second screenplay, he will co-write with Woody Allen (who will direct the film) for Shots on Broadway in 1994 with John Cusack, Dianne Wiest and Jennifer Tilly. This last feature then earned McGrath and Allen an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
At the same time, he did not abandon his acting career, appearing in several films including Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994) with Ralph Fiennes, or Woody Allen’s Celebrity (1998) with Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis and Leonardo. DiCaprio.
Her next project was Emma the Matchmaker, an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel starring Gwyneth Paltrow in the lead role alongside Toni Collette, Alan Cumming and Ewan McGregor. If he signs the screenplay again, he mainly goes behind the camera for the first time and also directs the film which will win an Oscar for its music. Emma, the matchmaker will also have allowed Douglas McGrath to be nominated for a USC Scripter Award and a nomination from the Writers Guild of America for the best adapted screenplay.
Miramax Films / Buena Vista International
After writing, directing and starring in the 2000 comedy Company Man opposite Sigourney Weaver, Douglas McGrath later adapted the novel Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens in a 2002 film of the same name starring Charlie Hunnam, Jamie Bell and Christopher Plummer, which he, again, wrote and directed himself, before signing the drama and biopic on Truman Capote, Scandalously famous , with Toby Jones, Daniel Craig and Sandra Bullock.
In 2011, he directed the comedy But how do women do? with Sarah Jessica Parker and Pierce Brosnan. His most recent directing project was the Emmy-nominated documentary Becoming Mike Nichols about the filmmaker.
At the same time, we always find him in front of the camera, especially in the series Girls in which he played the principal Toby Cook. On the cinema side, he distinguished himself in Cafe Society (2016) by Woody Allen alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell, and more recently in Rifkin’s Festival (2022), still by Woody Allen.
A true jack-of-all-trades, Douglas McGrath has also been associated with Broadway for a long time and was nominated for a Tony Award for his work on Beautiful, a musical devoted to Carole King. At the time of his death, he played in particular in the off-Broadway show Everything’s Finean autobiographical one-man show directed by John Lithgow, who has therefore just been stopped at the announcement of his death.
“It is with great sadness that we are canceling the remaining performances due to the sudden passing of writer and performer Douglas McGrath. The company of ‘Everything’s Fine’ was honored to present his solo autobiographical piece”, we could read in a press release published on the website of the show.“
As news of McGrath’s death spreads, tributes pour in from many people and organizations he had worked with. “We lost Doug McGrath. Words cannot express our grief and shock”, tweeted John Lithgow.
Singer Roseanne Cash wrote: “A heartbreaking loss. Douglas was the person you would most like to dine with: charming, kind, funny, a born storyteller. My love to Jane and Henry, and all who loved and admired her. I include myself in this great number.”
The Dramatists Guild also paid tribute to him, writing: “DG mourns the loss of playwright/librettist/screenwriter Douglas McGrath. A Guild member since 2014, he was perhaps best known in theater as the screenwriter of the award-winning book ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’. May his memory be a blessing.”
Douglas McGrath is survived by his wife Jane Read Martin and son Henry McGrath.