Education
Gidding was born in New York and attended school at Phillips Exeter Academy. As a young man he was friends with Norman Mailer.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Nelson Gidding Edit Profile
Career
A longtime collaboration with director Robert Wise began with Gidding"s screenplay for I Want To Live! (1958), which earned him an Oscar nomination. His long-running course on screenwriting adaptions at the University of Southern California inspired screenwriters of the present generation, including David South. Goyer. After graduating from Harvard University, he entered the Army Air Forces in World World War II as the navigator on a B-26.
His plane was shot down over Italy, but he survived.
He spent 18 months as a Prisoner Of War but effected an escape. Returning from the war, in 1946 he published his only novel, End Over End, begun while captive in a German prison camp.
In 1949 Gidding married Hildegarde Colligan. Together they had a son, Joshua Gidding, who today is a New York writer and college professor
In Hollywood, Gidding entered work in television, writing for such series as Suspense and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and eventually moved into feature films like The Helen Morgan Story (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), The Haunting (1963), Lost Command (1966), The Andromeda Strain (1971), and The Hindenburg (1975).
Gidding taught at University of Southern California until his death from congestive heart failure at a Santa Monica hospital in 2004.
-
Born
-
Died
March 1, 2004 (aged 84) -
Nationality
United States