Celebrity Biographies
Abby Mann
Fifty years has lasted the career as a screenwriter of Abby Mann, responsible for very diverse productions, although she stood out especially in the field of justice, and for her quite critical vision of the American courts. Veteran Mann died in Los Angeles on March 25, at the age of 80, as a result of cardiac arrest. The sad news has been known shortly after the disappearance of the legendary Richard Widmark, one of the protagonists of the best-known film written by Abby Mann, Winners or Losers , by Stanley Kramer.
Born in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), on December 1, 1927, Abraham Goodman – who would take Abby Mann as his stage name – was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He began as a screenwriter in the 50s, on the small screen, which was beginning to take its first steps, in series that were very popular at the time, such as Studio One , which adapted works by well-known authors, or Playhouse 90 , an anthology of short stories, for which he created his first recreation of the Nuremberg trials. Soon after, he turned it into a screenplay, Winners or Losers , which earned him an Oscar. He then alternated between television and cinema, as he wrote, for example, the unforgettable Ángeles sin paraíso, by John Cassavettes, The Ship of Fools – based on a novel by Katherine Anne Porter – and The Detective , which starred Frank Sinatra . He also created the series Kojak , in which Telly Savalas played a police inspector with a passion for lollipops.
“Since he started as a screenwriter, he was guided by a moral compass that never deviated,” said Del Reisman, former president of the Writers Guild, West branch, and a close friend of the deceased.