Screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard, who skillfully adapted stories of historical Black figures in Bear in mind the Titans starring Denzel Washington, Ali with Will Smith and Harriet with Cynthia Erivo, has died. He was 70.
Howard died Friday at his property in Miami right after a brief sickness, in accordance to a assertion from publicist Jeff Sanderson.
Howard was the first Black screenwriter to create a drama that created $100 million US at the box place of work when Titans crossed that milestone in 2000. It was about a actual-lifetime Black mentor coming into a recently integrated Virginia university and aiding direct their football staff to victory.
It experienced the legendary line: “I will not treatment if you like each other or not. But you will regard every single other.”
Howard explained he shopped the story all-around Hollywood with no achievements. So he took a chance and wrote the screenplay himself.
‘It manufactured my career’
“They failed to count on it to make a lot revenue, but it turned a monster, earning $100 million,” he reported. “It created my profession,” he explained to the Times-Herald of Vallejo, Calif., in 2009.
The movie created the Related Press’ listing of the greatest 25 sports activities flicks at any time designed.
Howard adopted up Try to remember the Titans with Ali, the 2001 Michael Mann-directed biopic of Muhammad Ali. Smith famously bulked up to perform Ali and was nominated for a ideal actor Oscar.
Howard also produced and co-wrote 2019’s Harriet, about abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Erivo led a cast that integrated Leslie Odom Jr., Clarke Peters and Joe Alwyn.
“I received into this business to generate about the complexity of the Black gentleman … I imagine it requires a Black man to generate about Black males,” he informed the Times-Herald.
From finance to movie
Born in Virginia, his family moved often due to his stepfather’s vocation in the U.S. Navy. Immediately after attending Princeton University, graduating with a degree in American historical past, Howard briefly labored at Merrill Lynch on Wall Avenue just before relocating to Los Angeles in his mid-20s to go after a writing profession.
He wrote for Television and penned the enjoy Tinseltown Trilogy, which centered on a few adult males in Los Angeles about Christmastime as their stories interconnect and tell each and every other.
Howard also wrote The Harlem Renaissance, a constrained sequence for HBO Misty, the tale of prima ballerina Misty Copeland and This Tiny Light-weight, the Fannie Lou Hamer story. Most a short while ago, he wrote the civil rights undertaking Ability to the People today for producer Ben Affleck and Paramount Pictures.
He is survived by his sister Lynette Henley, brother Michael Henley and two nieces and a nephew.