Oscar-winning screenwriter Alvin Sargent dead

Academy Award winner Alvin Sargent, who wrote films like "Paper Moon", "Ordinary People" and "Spider-Man" sequels of the 2000s, is no more.

He died on Thursday, his talent agency Gersh told variety.com. He was 92.

Sargent won adapted screenplay Oscars for "Julia" in 1978 and "Ordinary People" in 1981 and was also nominated in the category in 1974 for "Paper Moon".

The writer worked with many of Hollywood's top directors, including Alan J. Pakula, John Frankenheimer, Paul Newman, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, Fred Zinnemann, Robert Redford, Martin Ritt, Norman Jewison, Stephen Frears and Wayne Wang.

Sargent started as a writer for television but broke into features with his screenplay for 1966's "Gambit", a comedy thriller starring Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine and Herbert Lom.

Sargent did uncredited work on the 1976 remake of "A Star Is Born" that starred Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

Sargent, born Alvin Supowitz in Philadelphia, began his Hollywood career with a brief uncredited role in "From Here to Eternity". As a writer he first worked in television, penning episodes of "Chevron Hall of Stars" in 1956 and "G.E. True Theater" in 1960. He got busier in the 1960s, scripting multiple episodes of "Naked City", "Ben Casey", "Route 66" and "The Doctors and the Nurses", among other credits.

Sargent's brother, television writer and producer Herb Sargent, died in 2005.

--IANS

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