American playwright, filmmaker, and author (born 1947)
David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author.
He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1984) and "Speed-the-Plow" (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of 1970s off-Broadway plays: "The Duck Variations", "Sexual Perversity in Chicago", and "American Buffalo". His plays "Race" and "The Penitent", respectively, opened on Broadway in 2009 and previewed off-Broadway in 2017.
Feature films that Mamet both wrote and directed include "House of Games" (1987), "Homicide" (1991), "The Spanish Prisoner" (1997), and his biggest commercial success, "Heist" (2001). His screenwriting credits include "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1981), "The Verdict" (1982), "The Untouchables" (1987), "Hoffa" (1992), "Wag the Dog" (1997), and "Hannibal" (2001). Mamet himself wrote the screenplay for the 1992 adaptation of "Glengarry Glen Ross", and wrote and directed the 1994 adaptation of his play "Oleanna" (1992). He created and produced the CBS series "The Unit" (2006–2009).
Mamet's books include: "On Directing Film" (1991), a commentary and dialogue about film-making; "The Old Religion" (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; "Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy" (2004), a Torah commentary with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; "The Wicked Son" (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; "Bambi vs. Godzilla", a commentary on the movie business; "The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture" (2011), a commentary on cultural and political issues; "Three War Stories" (2013), a trio of novellas about the physical and psychological effects of war; and "Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood" (2023), an autobiographical account of his experiences in Hollywood.
Early life and education.
Mamet was born in 1947 in Chicago to Lenore June (née Silver), a teacher, and Bernard Morris Mamet, a labor attorney. He is Jewish. His paternal grandparents were Polish Jews. Mamet has said his parents were communists and described himself as a "red diaper baby". One of his earliest jobs was as a busboy at Chicago's London House and The Second City. He also worked as an actor, editor for "Oui" magazine and as a cab-driver. He was educated at the progressive Francis W. Parker School and at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. At the Chicago Public Library Foundation 20th anniversary fundraiser in 2006, though, Mamet announced "My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign".
After a move to Chicago's North Side, Mamet met theater director Robert Sickinger, and began to work occasionally at Sickinger's Hull House Theatre. Thus began Mamet's lifelong involvement with the theater.
Career.
Theater.
Mamet is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company; he first gained acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976, "The Duck Variations," "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," and "American Buffalo." He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for "Glengarry Glen Ross," which received its first Broadway revival in the summer of 2005. His play "Race", which opened on Broadway on December 6, 2009, and featured James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington, and Richard Thomas in the cast, received mixed reviews. His play "The Anarchist", starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger, in her Broadway debut, opened on Broadway on November 13, 2012, in previews and was scheduled to close on December 16, 2012. His 2017 play "The Penitent" previewed off-Broadway on February 8, 2017.
In 2002, Mamet was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Mamet later received the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for Grand Master of American Theater in 2010.
In 2017, Mamet released an online class for writers entitled "David Mamet teaches dramatic writing".
In 2019 Mamet returned to the London West End with a new play, "Bitter Wheat", at the Garrick Theatre, starring John Malkovich.
In 2023 it was announced that a new Mamet play, titled "Henry Johnson", was expected to debut in Los Angeles starring Shia LaBeouf.
Film.
Mamet's first film work was as a screenwriter, later directing his own scripts.
According to Joe Mantegna, Mamet worked as a script doctor for the 1978 film "Towing".
Mamet's first produced screenplay was the 1981 production of "The Postman Always Rings Twice", based on James M. Cain's novel. He received an Academy Award nomination one year later for the 1982 legal drama, "The Verdict". He also wrote the screenplays for "The Untouchables" (1987), "Hoffa" (1992), "The Edge" (1997), "Wag the Dog" (1997), "Ronin" (1998), and "Hannibal" (2001). He received a second Academy Award nomination for "Wag the Dog".
In 1987, Mamet made his film directing debut with his screenplay "House of Games", which won Best Screenplay awards at the 1987 Venice Film Festival and the Film of the Year in 1989 from the London Film Critics' Circle Awards. The film starred his then-wife, Lindsay Crouse, and many longtime stage associates and friends, including fellow Goddard College graduates. Mamet was quoted as saying, "It was my first film as a director and I needed support, so I stacked the deck." After "House of Games", Mamet later wrote and directed two more films focusing on the world of con artists, "The Spanish Prisoner" (1997) and "Heist" (2001). Among those films, "Heist" enjoyed the biggest commercial success.
Other films that Mamet both wrote and directed include: "Things Change" (1988), "Homicide" (1991) (nominated for the Palme d'Or at 1991 Cannes Film Festival and won a "Screenwriter of the Year" award for Mamet from the London Film Critics' Circle Awards), "Oleanna" (1994), "The Winslow Boy" (1999), "State and Main" (2000), "Spartan" (2004), "Redbelt" (2008), and the 2013 bio-pic TV movie "Phil Spector".
A feature-length film, a thriller titled "Blackbird", was intended for release in 2015, but is still in development.
When Mamet adapted his play for the 1992 film "Glengarry Glen Ross", he wrote an additional part (including the monologue "Coffee's for closers") for Alec Baldwin.
Mamet continues to work with an informal repertory company for his films, including Crouse, William H. Macy, Joe Mantegna, and Rebecca Pidgeon, as well as the aforementioned school friends.
Mamet rewrote the script for "Ronin" under the pseudonym "Richard Weisz" and turned in an early version of a script for "Malcolm X" which was rejected by director Spike Lee. Mamet also wrote an unproduced biopic script about Roscoe Arbuckle with Chris Farley intended to portray him. In 2000, Mamet directed a film version of "Catastrophe," a one-act play by Samuel Beckett featuring Harold Pinter and John Gielgud (in his final screen performance). In 2008, he wrote and directed the mixed martial arts movie "Redbelt," about a martial arts instructor tricked into fighting in a professional bout.
In "On Directing Film", Mamet advocates for a method of storytelling based on Eisenstein's montage theory, stating that the story should be told through the juxtaposition of uninflected images. This method relies heavily on the cut between scenes, and Mamet urges directors to eliminate as much narration as possible. Mamet asserts that directors should focus on getting the point of a scene across, rather than simply following a protagonist, or adding visually beautiful or intriguing shots. Films should create order from disorder in search of the objective.
In 2023, reports emerged that Mamet would direct and co-write a new film titled "Assassination", his first film since 2008. The film will center around the Chicago Mob ordering the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and will star Viggo Mortensen, Shia LaBeouf, Courtney Love, Al Pacino, and John Travolta. The film's production was scheduled to start in September 2023. In October, Barry Levinson took over as the film's director, while Mamet remained as the screenwriter.
In March 2024, Mamet stated that he is currently writing a screenplay centering about Hunter Biden, the second son of U.S. President Joe Biden. In June, "Deadline" reported that the film, titled "The Prince", will directed by Cameron Van Hoy and star Scott Haze as the lead character Parker; alongside Nicolas Cage, J.K. Simmons, Giancarlo Esposito, and Andy Garcia. Mamet added that the film won't be "a travelogue", and will be inspired by Hunter's life, rather than serve as a biopic.
Books.
Mamet published the essay collection "Writing in Restaurants" in 1986, followed by the poetry collection "The Hero Pony" in 1990. He has also published a series of short plays, monologues and four novels, "The Village" (1994), "The Old Religion" (1997), "Wilson: A Consideration of the Sources" (2000), and "Chicago" (2018). He has written several non-fiction texts, and children's stories, including "True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor "(1997). In 2004 he published a lauded version of the classical Faust story, "Faustus", however, when the play was staged in San Francisco during the spring of 2004, it was not well received by critics. On May 1, 2010, Mamet released a graphic novel "The Trials of Roderick Spode (The Human Ant)".
Mamet detailed his conversion from modern liberalism to "a reformed liberal" in "The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture" in 2011. Mamet published "Three War Stories", a collection of novellas, in 2013 ; the novel "The Diary of a Porn Star by Priscilla Wriston-Ranger: As Told to David Mamet With an Afterword by Mr. Mamet" in 2019; and the political commentary "Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch" in 2022. In 2023 Mamet recounted his experiences in Hollywood and the movie-making industry in "Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood."
Television and radio.
Mamet wrote one episode of "Hill Street Blues", "A Wasted Weekend", that aired in 1987. His then-wife, Lindsay Crouse, appeared in numerous episodes (including that one) as Officer McBride. Mamet is also the creator, producer and frequent writer of the television series "The Unit", where he wrote a well-circulated memo to the writing staff. He directed a third-season episode of "The Shield" with Shawn Ryan. In 2007, Mamet directed two television commercials for Ford Motor Company. The two 30-second ads featured the Ford Edge and were filmed in Mamet's signature style of fast-paced dialogue and clear, simple imagery. Mamet's sister, Lynn, is a producer and writer for television shows, such as "The Unit" and "Law &amp; Order".
Mamet has contributed several dramas to BBC Radio through Jarvis &amp; Ayres Productions, including an adaptation of "Glengarry Glen Ross" for BBC Radio 3 and new dramas for BBC Radio 4. The comedy "Keep Your Pantheon (or On the Whole I'd Rather Be in Mesopotamia)" was aired in 2007. "The Christopher Boy's Communion" was another Jarvis &amp; Ayres production, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on March 8, 2021.
Style and reception.
Mamet speak.
Mamet's style of writing dialogue, marked by a cynical, street-smart edge, has come to be called "Mamet speak." Mamet himself has criticized his (and other writers') tendency to write "pretty" at the expense of sound, logical plots. When asked how he developed his style for writing dialogue, Mamet said, "In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to while away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, based solely on our ability to speak the language viciously. That's probably where my ability was honed."
Gender issues.
Mamet's plays have frequently sparked debate and controversy. Following a 1992 staging of "Oleanna", a play in which a college student accuses her professor of trying to rape her, a critic reported that the play divided the audience by gender and recounted that "couples emerged screaming at each other".
In his 2014 book "David Mamet and Male Friendship", Arthur Holmberg examined Mamet's portrayal of male friendships, especially focusing on the contradictions and ambiguities of male bonding as dramatized in Mamet's plays and films.
Archives.
The papers of David Mamet were sold to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 2007 and first opened for research in 2009. The growing collection consists mainly of manuscripts and related production materials for most of his plays, films, and other writings, but also includes his personal journals from 1966 to 2005. In 2015, the Ransom Center secured a second major addition to Mamet's papers, including more recent works. Additional materials relating to Mamet and his career can be found in the Ransom Center's collections of Robert De Niro, Mel Gussow, Tom Stoppard, Sam Shepard, Paul Schrader, Don DeLillo, and John Russell Brown.
Personal life.
Mamet and actress Lindsay Crouse married in 1977 and divorced in 1990. The couple have two children.