Film & TV / Literature
Lawrence Kasdan
born 1949 · screenwriter, film director, producer
Screenwriter of The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, who studied at the University of Michigan and spent about five years as a Detroit advertising copywriter before Hollywood.
- Born
Miami Beach, Florida
age 77- Birth name
- Lawrence Edward Kasdan
- Detroit years
- 1966–mid-1970s
- Field
- Film & TV, Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Lawrence Kasdan grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, and chose the University of Michigan because of the Hopwood Awards, its well-funded writing prizes; he won four of them between 1968 and 1970. After a frustrating spell in Los Angeles he returned to Ann Arbor, worked in a record store, finished a master's degree in education in 1971 and, unable to find a teaching job, became a copywriter at the W. B. Doner advertising agency in Detroit. He disliked the work but was good at it, winning a Clio Award for his first TV commercial, and spent his nights writing screenplays; his son Jake, later a director himself, was born in Detroit in 1974. A spec script, The Bodyguard, won him an agent, and he moved to Los Angeles. He went on to co-write The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi and to direct Body Heat, The Big Chill and Silverado. In 2025 he gave his archives to the University of Michigan.
Highlights
- Co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983)
- Wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Directed Body Heat (1981) and The Big Chill (1983)
- Clio Award as a copywriter at Detroit's W. B. Doner agency
- Four-time Hopwood Award winner at the University of Michigan
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1966–1971
University of Michigan
Kasdan won four Hopwood Awards here (1968–1970) and earned a master's in education in 1971; he gave his archives to the university in 2025.
Worked here · early–mid 1970s
W. B. Doner and Company (Doner advertising agency)
Status being checked
Detroit-area advertising agency where Kasdan worked as a copywriter for about five years and won a Clio Award. Office location in the 1970s not verified.