Bruce Jay Friedman (April 26, 1930June 3, 2020) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. He was noted for his versatility of writing in both literature and pop culture. He was also a trailblazer in the style of modern American black humor. The themes he wrote about reflected the major changes taking place in society during the 1960s and 1970s. Many of his stories were inspired by the events of his personal life.
Early life
Friedman was born in New York City on April 26, 1930, and was raised in The Bronx, together with his sister, Dollie. His father, Irving, worked at a company selling women's apparel; his mother, Mollie (Liebowitz), was a regular theatergoer. His family was Jewish. Friedman attended DeWitt Clinton High School before studying journalism at the University of Missouri, having applied unsuccessfully to Columbia University. He subsequently joined the United States Air Force and wrote for the military publication Air Training.
Career
After he finished his two-year stint in the military, Friedman went back to The Bronx. He wrote his first short story titled "Wonderful Golden Rule Days", which he sold to The New Yorker. He was later employed by Magazine Management Company in 1954, working for many of the era's famous men's magazines. Friedman ended up as an executive editor in charge of the magazines Men (not the present magazine of the same title), Male, and Man's World. Ron Martin began his review in The Detroit Free Press: "It is said that when Bruce Jay Friedman was graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City, he was voted the second funniest fellow in his class. It is a safe bet that Friedman is now ready to go to the head of the class."
Stern was followed shortly by A Mother's Kisses (1964) and his first play, Scuba Duba (1967). The success of these three works led to his being named "The Hottest Writer of the Year" by The New York Times Magazine in 1968. He switched his focus to writing screenplays after the 1970s. He wrote the script for Stir Crazy in 1980, which wound up being the third-highest-grossing film in the U.S. that year. Four years later, he composed the first draft of Splash. which Friedman shared with Brian Grazer, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel. A collection of four plays (Scuba Duba, Steambath, Sardines and The Trial, titled 3.1 Plays, was published in January 2012.
Style
Friedman was an early writer of modern American black humor, together with his peers Joseph Heller (also a close friend of his), Stanley Elkin, and Thomas Pynchon. The style was given this name in part because of the 1965 anthology by the same name that he edited. When asked about the origin of the term by Newsday in 1995, he revealed, "I don't really know if I invented [it]". He frequently discussed how conflicted he felt in composing screenplays for profit and for pleasure, as opposed to his "higher calling" of authoring novels. Five years later, he married Patricia O'Donohue.
Short fiction
- Black Humor (1965) (editor)
- Let's Hear It for a Beautiful Guy (1984)
- Three Balconies: Stories and a Novella (2008)
Filmography
- The Heartbreak Kid (1972) (screenplay by Neil Simon; based on Friedman's short story "A Change of Plan")
- Fore Play (1975) (story)
- Stir Crazy (1980)
- Doctor Detroit (1983) (screenplay with Robert Boris and Carl Gottlieb)
- Splash (1984) (screenplay with Brian Grazer, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel)
Plays
- Scuba Duba (1967)
- 3.1 Plays (2012)
Non-fiction
- The Rascal's Guide (editor and contributor) (1959)
- The Lonely Guy's Book of Life (1978)