Erich Segal

Erich Segal

Erich Wolf Segal (June 16, 1937 – January 17, 2010) was an American author, screenwriter, educator, and classicist who wrote the bestselling novel Love Story (1970) and its hit film adaptation. Born and raised in a Jewish household in Brooklyn, New York, Segal was the first of three brothers. His father was a rabbi and his mother was a homemaker. His interest in writing and narrating stories developed as a child. He went to Midwood High School, during which he suffered a serious accident while canoeing. His coach advised him to jog as a part of his rehabilitation, which ended up becoming his passion and caused him to participate in the Boston Marathon more than 12 times. He attended Harvard College, graduating as both the class poet and Latin salutatorian in 1958, and then obtained his master's degree (in 1959) and a doctorate (in 1965) in comparative literature from Harvard University, after which he started teaching at Yale. In 1967, through connections on Broadway, Segal was given the opportunity to collaborate on the screenplay for the Beatles' 1968 motion picture Yellow Submarine, based on a story by Lee Minoff. His first academic book, Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus (1968), published by the Harvard University Press, gave him considerable recognition and chronicled the great Roman comic playwright who inspired the Broadway hit A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962). In the late 1960s, Segal collaborated on other screenplays. He wrote a romantic story about a Harvard student and a Radcliffe student but failed to sell it. Literary agent Lois Wallace at the William Morris Agency then suggested he turn the script into a novel, and the result was Love Story (1970). A New York Times No. 1 bestseller, the book became the top selling work of fiction for 1970 in the United States, and was translated into 33 languages worldwide. The motion picture of the same name was the number one box office attraction of 1970. The novel proved problematic for Segal. He acknowledged that its success unleashed "egotism bordering on megalomania" and he was denied tenure at Yale. Moreover, Love Story "was ignominiously bounced from the nomination slate of the National Book Awards after the fiction jury threatened to resign." Segal later said that the book "totally ruined me." He would go on to write more novels and screenplays, including the 1977 sequel to Love Story, titled Oliver's Story. Segal published scholarly works on Greek and Latin literature and taught Greek and Latin literature at Harvard, Yale and Princeton universities. He was a Supernumerary Fellow and an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College at Oxford University. He served as a visiting professor at Princeton, the University of Munich and Dartmouth College. His novel The Class (1985), a saga based on the Harvard Class of 1958, was a bestseller, and won literary honors in France and Italy. Doctors (1988) was another New York Times bestseller. In 2001, he published a book on the history of theatre called The Death of Comedy. ... Source: Article "Erich Segal" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

  • Title: Erich Segal
  • Popularity: 2.517
  • Known For: Writing
  • Birthday: 1937-06-16
  • Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
  • Homepage: https://erichsegal.com/
  • Also Known As:
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Erich Segal Movies

  • 1971
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    Jennifer on My Mind

    Jennifer on My Mind

    3.8 1971 HD

    Two rich American young adults who meet and fall in love in Venice, Italy. With plenty of money and no real responsibilities or direction in life,...

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  • 1965
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    Marathon

    Marathon

    1 1965 HD

    Started as a class project in what was likely the first filmmaking course ever taught at Harvard, Marathon documents the running of the 1964 Boston...

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  • 1971
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    Without Apparent Motive

    Without Apparent Motive

    5.8 1971 HD

    A series of murders is committed in Nice on the French riviera. The commissaire Carella is in charge and tries to find a missing link between all...

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  • 1990
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    Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music

    Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music

    10 1990 HD

    A television special broadcast on PBS in honor of composer, songwriter, pianist, television writer and lyricist Joe Raposo after he passed away.

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  • 1970
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    Love Story

    Love Story

    6.8 1970 HD

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  • 1968
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    Yellow Submarine

    Yellow Submarine

    7.1 1968 HD

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  • 1980
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    A Change of Seasons

    A Change of Seasons

    5.6 1980 HD

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  • 1980
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    A Change of Seasons

    A Change of Seasons

    5.6 1980 HD

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  • 1978
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    Oliver's Story

    Oliver's Story

    4.788 1978 HD

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  • 1983
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    Man, Woman and Child

    Man, Woman and Child

    5.6 1983 HD

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  • 1998
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    Only Love

    Only Love

    5.4 1998 HD

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  • 1970
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    R.P.M.

    R.P.M.

    6.3 1970 HD

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  • 1971
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    Jennifer on My Mind

    Jennifer on My Mind

    3.8 1971 HD

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  • 1978
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    Oliver's Story

    Oliver's Story

    4.788 1978 HD

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  • 2014
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    Masoom

    Masoom

    1 2014 HD

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  • 1970
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    The Games

    The Games

    7.2 1970 HD

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  • 1983
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    Masoom

    Masoom

    6.4 1983 HD

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  • 1982
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    Olangal

    Olangal

    7 1982 HD

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  • 1975
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    Apostrophes

    Apostrophes

    8.5 1975 HD

    Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years...

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  • 1968
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    The Dick Cavett Show

    The Dick Cavett Show

    6.6 1968 HD

    The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.

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