IN MEMORIAM: Lewis John Carlino
Lewis John Carlino, Oscar-Nominated Writer-Director of ‘The Great Santini,’ Dies at 88 | Variety, Jun 23, 2020
Lewis John Carlino, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director, and playwright known for writing and directing “The Great Santini,” died on June 17 on Whidbey Island in Washington state, his family has announced. He was 88.
Carlino received an Oscar nomination with Gavin Lambert for best adapted screenplay for the 1978 drama “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” based on the novel by Joanne Greenberg. In 1979, he wrote and directed the screenplay for “The Great Santini,” from the novel by Pat Conroy. The film earned Academy Award nominations for Robert Duvall for his portrayal of a Marine pilot and for Michael O’Keefe as the son of Duvall’s character.
His screenwriting credits include John Frankenheimer’s “Seconds,” “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea,” which he also directed and co-produced; “The Brotherhood,” starring Kirk Douglas; “The Mechanic,” starring Charles Bronson; and “Resurrection,” starring Ellen Burstyn. During production of “The Brotherhood,” he met Jilly Chadwick, whom he would marry in 1976.
In 1984, Carlino directed Jacqueline Bisset, Rob Lowe and Andy McCarthy in “Class,” and in 1985 his screenplay “Haunted Summer” was produced. His work in television included “Honor Thy Father,” from the novel by Gay Talese; “In Search Of America,” “Doc Elliot,” “Where Have All The People Gone” and “The Brick And The Rose.”
Carlino, the son of Sicilian immigrants, was born in Queens, N.Y. on Jan. 1, 1932. He served as a medic in the US Air Force during the Korean War.
He went on to study theater at El Camino Junior College, where he met his first wife, Natelle, with whom he had three children — Voné Natelle (1959-1988), Ida Alessandra (1964), and Lewis John II (1965-2018). He enrolled in the School of Communications at University of Southern California, taking his graduate degree in playwriting.
Carlino’s first plays were produced in the University’s Workshop Theater and later performed by the American National Theatre and Academy, with Carlino directing. He then returned to New York where he was admitted to the New Dramatists Committee and the Playwright’s Unit of the Actor’s Studio.
For a short while, he taught playwriting at Columbia University, before deciding to devote all his time to the theater, beginning with a series of three works: “Cages,” starring Shelley Winters and Jack Warden; “Telemachus Clay;” and “Doubletalk,” starring Franchot Tone and Ruth White. These plays earned Carlino the Vernon Rice Award for contributions to the Off-Broadway theatre and the New York Critics’ Drama Desk Award. In 1967, his play “The Exercise” was produced on Broadway and starred Anne Jackson and Stephen Joyce.
He moved to Whidbey Island with his wife in 1996, where he was instrumental in the forming of Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.
He is survived by his daughter, Alessandra Carlino, grandson, Duncan Kyle O’Bryan, and great-granddaughter, June Alice O’Bryan.
FILMOGRAPHY
Mechanic: Resurrection (based upon the characters created by) 2016
Snowangel (Short) (play) 2013
The Mechanic (screenplay) / (story) 2011
Resurrection (TV Movie) (earlier screenplay) / (story) 1999
Class (director) 1983
Haunted Summer (writer) 1988
Resurrection (written by) 1980
The Great Santini (writer/director) 1979
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (screenplay) 1977
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (written for the screen by/director) 1976
Where Have All the People Gone (TV Movie) (story) / (teleplay) 1974
Doc Elliot (TV Series) (developed for television by) 1973
Crazy Joe (screenplay) 1974
Honor Thy Father (TV Movie) (screenplay) 1973
The Mechanic (screenplay) / (story) 1972
A Reflection of Fear (screenplay) 1972
In Search of America (TV Movie) 1971
Zid i ruza (TV Movie) 1970
Prodajem stara kola (TV Movie) 1968
The Brotherhood (writer) 1968
The Fox (screenplay) 1967
Tupp tupp men ingen höna (TV Movie) 1966
Seconds (screenplay) 1966
Route 66 (TV Series) 1963
Johnny Midnight (TV Series) 1960
CBS Repertoire Workshop (TV Series) 1960
AWARDS
Nominated for the Best Screenplay of 1967 Golden Globe for The Fox
Nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for the Best Written American Original Screenplay of 1968 for The Brotherhood
Nominated with for Best Adapted Screenplay of 1977, 50th Academy Awards for I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Nominated with Gavin Lambert for the Writers Guild of America Award of 1978 for the Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium for I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award of 1979 for the Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium for The Great Santini
Nominated by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for the Saturn Award for Best Writing of 1980 for Resurrection