Sayles was born on September 28, 1950, in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary (née Rausch), a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator.[1] Both of Sayles's parents were Catholic and of half-Irish descent. Sayles has referred to himself as a "Catholic atheist".[2] He attended Williams College with frequent collaborators Gordon Clapp and David Strathairn, as well as his longtime partner, Maggie Renzi. Sayles earned a B.A. in psychology in 1972.[3]
Career
After college, Sayles moved to Boston where he worked a variety of blue-collar jobs while writing short stories for The Atlantic.[3] These writings culminated in his first novel, The Pride of the Bimbos, published in 1975.
In 1979, Sayles used $30,000 he earned writing scripts for Corman to fund his first film, Return of the Secaucus 7.[5] To make the film on a limited budget, he set the film in a large house so that he did not have to travel to or get permits for different locations, set the story over a three-day weekend to limit costume changes, and wrote about people his age so he could cast his friends in it. The film received near-unanimous critical acclaim at the time and has held its reputation. In November 1997, the National Film Preservation Board announced that Return of the Secaucus 7 would be one of the 25 films selected that year for preservation in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.
In 1983, after the films Baby It's You (starring Rosanna Arquette) and Lianna (a story in which a married woman becomes discontented with her marriage and falls in love with another woman), Sayles received a MacArthur Fellowship. He put the money into the science fiction feature The Brother from Another Planet,[6] a film about a three-toed humanoid who escapes bondage on another world and crash-lands in New York harbor; because he is Africanoid in appearance, he finds himself at home among the people of Harlem, being pursued by European-looking alien enslavers men in black.
In 1989, Sayles created and wrote the pilot episode for the short-lived television show Shannon's Deal about a down-and-out Philadelphia lawyer played by Jamey Sheridan. Sayles received a 1990 Edgar Award for his teleplay for the pilot. The show ran for 16 episodes before being cancelled in 1991.
Sayles has funded most of his films by writing genre scripts, such as Piranha, Alligator, The Howling, and The Challenge.[7] Having collaborated with Joe Dante on Piranha and The Howling, Sayles acted in Dante's movie, Matinee. Sayles gets the rest of his funding by working as a script doctor; he did rewrites for Apollo 13[8] and Mimic.
Sayles works with a regular repertory of actors, most notably Chris Cooper, David Strathairn, and Gordon Clapp, each of whom has appeared in at least four of his films.
In February 2009, Sayles was reported to be writing an HBO series based on the early life of Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The drama, tentatively titled Scar Tissue[needs update], centers on Kiedis's early years living in West Hollywood with his father. At that time, Kiedis's father, known as Spider, sold drugs (according to legend, his clients included The Who and Led Zeppelin) and mingled with rock stars on the Sunset Strip, all while aspiring to get into show business.[12]
In February 2010, Sayles began shooting his 17th feature film, the historical war drama Amigo, in the Philippines. The film is a fictional account of events during the Philippine–American War, with a cast that includes Joel Torre, Chris Cooper, and Garret Dillahunt.[13]
His novel A Moment in the Sun, set during the same period as Amigo, in the Philippines, Cuba, and the U.S., was released in 2011 by McSweeney's. It includes an account of the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 in North Carolina, the only coup d'état in United States history in which a duly elected government was overthrown.[14]
1990 Edgar Award, for teleplay for pilot of Shannon's Deal
In June 2014, Sayles donated his non-film archive to the University of Michigan. It will be accessible at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. Sayles's film archive is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.[15]
Best Screenplay (Win) – John Sayles – 2007 San Sebastián International Film Festival (Tied with Gracia Querejeta and David Planell for Siete mesas de billar francés (2007))[22]
Award for Silver City:
Golden Seashell Award for Best Film (Nominated) – John Sayles – 2004 San Sebastián International Film Festival[23]
Diane Carson and Heidi Kenaga, eds., Sayles Talk: New Perspectives on Independent Filmmaker John Sayles, Wayne State University Press, 2006
John Sayles, Thinking in Pictures: The Making of the Movie Matewan, Da Capo Press, 2003
References
^Carson, Diane (1999). John Sayles: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series). University Press of Mississippi. p. xix. ISBN 9781578061389.
^"John Sayles Interview". Archived from the original on August 29, 2006. Retrieved September 27, 2006.
^ a b"John Sayles | Biography, Movies, Books, Assessment, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on April 12, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
^Vagg, Sephen (May 13, 2024). "Top Ten Corman – Part Two: Top Ten Screenwriters". FilmInk. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024. Retrieved May 17, 2024.
^"8 Hollywood directors from the Roger Corman film school". Den of Geek. November 21, 2012. Archived from the original on October 10, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
^Richard Corliss (October 1, 1984). "Blues for Black Actors". Time. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
^"Dancing with Werewolves: John Sayles in Roger Corman's Hollywood". Bright Lights Film Journal. August 1, 2003. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
^Johnson, Mary; Neff, Renfreu; Mercurio, Jim; Goldsmith, David F. (April 15, 2016). "John Sayles on Screenwriting". Creative Screenwriting. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
^Miyamoto, Ken (December 10, 2018). "Where the Script Could Have Gone Wrong: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial". ScreenCraft. Archived from the original on May 22, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
^"Austin Film Society Board of Directors". austinfilm.org. Austin Film Society. Archived from the original on November 14, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
^"PRIDE OF THE BIMBOS - John Sayles 1975 1st edition 1st printing with dust jacket • $24.99". PicClick. Archived from the original on May 22, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
^Sayles red hot for HBO's 'Scar' from Variety
^Joel Torre believes 'Baryo' may stir controversy Archived January 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine from www.mb.com.ph
^"BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN SAYLES". johnsayles.com. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
^"University of Michigan Acquires Archive of John Sayles". Archived from the original on October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
^"Yellow Earth". haymarketbooks.org. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
^Tannenbaum, Rob; Marks, Craig (2012). I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution. Plume. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-452-29856-9. Archived from the original on August 23, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
^Carlin, Peter Ames (October 30, 2012). Bruce. Simon and Schuster. p. 353. ISBN 978-1-4711-1235-5. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
^ a b"NAACP | List of NAACP Image Awards Winners". NAACP. February 14, 2008. Archived from the original on April 13, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"2007 Archives - National Board of Review". National Board of Review. Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"San Sebastian Film Festival". sansebastianfestival. Archived from the original on November 27, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"San Sebastian Film Festival". sansebastianfestival. Archived from the original on November 27, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"2002 FFCC Award Winners". Florida Film Critics Circle. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"2002 Archives - National Board of Review". National Board of Review. Archived from the original on January 7, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"Golden Space Needle History 1990-1999". www.siff.net. Archived from the original on February 22, 2020. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"1999 Archives - National Board of Review". National Board of Review. Archived from the original on September 17, 2014. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"Winners Nominations · BIFA · British Independent Film Awards". BIFA · British Independent Film Awards. October 24, 1998. Archived from the original on March 25, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"Winners & Nominees 1999". www.goldenglobes.com. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^ a b c"Previous Awards – Political Film Society". polfilms.com. Archived from the original on November 27, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"The 69th Academy Awards | 1997". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"1997 Film Original Screenplay | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Archived from the original on November 27, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^"The 65th Academy Awards | 1993". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on May 9, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
^Sayles, John. "MacArthur Foundation". Archived from the original on May 22, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
^Ryan, Jack (1998). John Sayles, Filmmaker: A Critical Study of the Independent Writer-director : with a Filmography and a Bibliography. McFarland. ISBN 9780786405299.page 6
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
Interview April 2007 by Cathy Pryor in the London Independent[dead link]
The Rumpus interview Archived May 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
Return of the Independent: Sayles on Sayles (5-part interview) Archived September 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine from siffblog.com
Cinema of Bread and Roses: An Interview with Maggie Renzi and John Sayles Archived December 20, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, Filmmaker, December 18, 2023