Literature / Theatre & dance
James Leo Herlihy
1927–1993 · novelist, playwright, actor
Detroit-born author of Midnight Cowboy, whose novel became the only X-rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Los Angeles, California
aged 66- Detroit years
- 1927–1940s
- Field
- Literature, Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Herlihy was born in 1927 into a working-class Detroit family and was raised partly in Detroit and partly in Chillicothe, Ohio. After Navy service in World War II he studied at Black Mountain College and the Pasadena Playhouse, acting and writing. His play Blue Denim (1958), about troubled teenagers, and his novel All Fall Down (1960) were both filmed, but his lasting success was Midnight Cowboy (1965), the story of a naive Texas hustler and a sickly New York con man, which John Schlesinger filmed in 1969 with Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman; it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. He later wrote The Season of the Witch (1971) and acted occasionally.
Highlights
- Midnight Cowboy (1965), basis of the 1969 Best Picture winner
- All Fall Down (1960), filmed in 1962
- Play Blue Denim (1958), filmed in 1959
- The Season of the Witch (1971)