terry southern (may 1, 1924 – october 29, 1995) was an american novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. part of the paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to beat writers in greenwich village, southern was also at the center of swinging london in the 1960s and helped to change the style and substance of american films in the 1970s. he briefly wrote for "saturday night live" in the 1980s.