Screenwriter Ernest Lehman Passes Away
Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter who adapted such theatre classics as The Sound of Music, West Side Story and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, died on Saturday at the age of 89 at the UCLA Medical Center after a lengthy illness.
Born in New York, Mr. Lehman attended City College of New York and studied creative writing. Post college, he became a copywriter for a Broadway publicist. In 1953, his published short story "The Comedian" (which appeared in Collier's) caught the eye of Paramount and he was brought to Hollywood.Lehman was a six-time Academy Award-nominee. He received nominations for Best Picture for Hello, Dolly! and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (both of which he produced), and for his screenplays for Woolf, West Side Story, North by Northwest, and Sabrina. In 2001, he became the first screenwriter awarded an honorary Oscar, and he also garnered 9 WGA awards, winning 5 for Sabrina, The King and I, West Side Story, The Sound of Music and once again, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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