Elliott Baker (December 15, 1922 – February 9, 2007), born Elliot Joseph Cohen, was a screenwriter and novelist. He died from cancer. [1]
Baker was born in Buffalo, New York, and graduated from Indiana University. He was the author of the comic novel A Fine Madness, which was published in 1964 by G.P. Putnam's Sons. He adapted the novel into a 1966 motion picture starring Sean Connery and Joanne Woodward. [2]
A Fine Madness tells the story of Samson Shillitoe, a rebellious poet in Greenwich Village who battles a psychiatrist seeking to curb his mood swings via psychosurgery. The New York Times Book Review called the novel "a masterpiece of what one might call rebellious farce." [3]
His other novels included Pocock & Pitt (Putnam, 1971), which was the basis for the television series Adderly, which Baker also created; Klynt's Law (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976); And We Were Young (Times Books, 1979); and Unhealthful Air (Viking, 1988). His novel The Penny Wars (Putnam, 1968) was adapted for the Broadway stage. [3]
As a screenwriter he wrote a number of television movies, and was nominated for an Emmy award in 1976 for his adaptation of The Entertainer. He also wrote " Side Show", the most famous episode of Roald Dahl's 1961 television anthology horror series Way Out, which featured a carnival "electric woman with a light bulb for a head." He also wrote the mini-series adaptation of Lace from a novel by Shirley Conran and Lace 2. He wrote the script for the ABC mini-series Malibu starring William Atherton and Susan Dey.
Notes
- ^ Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2007: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. 2008-10-07. ISBN 9780786451913.
- ^ New York Times obituary, February 21, 2007
- ^ a b New York Times obituary
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