He won an Oscar for his gripping portrayal of breakdowns lurking under the surface of an affluent family in Robert Redford’s 1980 film “Ordinary People,” and for 1977’s “Julia.”
Alvin Sargent, the veteran Hollywood screenwriter who won an Oscar for his gripping portrayal of breakdowns lurking under the surface of an affluent but guilt-ridden family in Robert Redford’s 1980 film “Ordinary People,” died on Thursday in Seattle. He was 92.
The death was confirmed by his daughter Amanda Sargent.
Mr. Sargent also won an Academy Award for his script for “Julia,” Fred Zinnemann’s 1977 film, with Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave, based on a chapter in Lillian Hellman’s memoir “Pentimento,” about her friendship with a woman who died fighting the Nazis in the years leading up to World War II.
One of Hollywood’s most versatile writers, Mr. Sargent, who adapted screenplays from books and stories, wrote or collaborated on scores of television and film scripts over six decades: comedies, dramas, westerns, romances, even Spider-Man adventures. He also wrote the original screenplay for Alan J. Pakula’s 1973 bittersweet comedy “Love and Pain and the Whole Damned Thing.”
But he was best known for “Ordinary People,” his treatment of Judith Guest’s 1976 novel about a family whose idolized older son has drowned in a boating accident. Tormented by survivor’s guilt, his brother (Timothy Hutton) attempts suicide. The mother (Mary Tyler Moore), in denial, clings to an illusion that everything is fine, as the passive father (Donald Sutherland) and a psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch) try to mediate the mess.
“Ordinary People” won three other 1981 Oscars: for best picture, best direction by Mr. Redford and best supporting actor for Mr. Hutton. Ms. Moore was nominated for best actress and Mr. Hirsch for best supporting actor. The picture also won six Golden Globe Awards and critical acclaim.
Vincent Canby, in The New York Times, called it “a moving, intelligent and funny film about disasters that are commonplace to everyone except the people who experience them,” adding: “The real achievement of Robert Redford, who makes his directorial debut in ‘Ordinary People,’ and of Alvin Sargent, who meticulously adapted Miss Guest’s novel for the screen, is that the Jarretts become important people without losing their ordinariness, without being patronized or satirized.
