Celebrity Biographies
Erich Segal
“Love means never having to say sorry”. This is undoubtedly the most remembered phrase of Erich Segal, a writer and professor at Yale University who included it in Love Story , his best-known work. His novel moved the American society of the time and he himself was in charge of adapting the script for the film. Segal died of a heart attack on Sunday, January 17, at his London home. He was 72 years old, and he had Parkinson’s disease.
Born on June 16, 1937 in the New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, Erich Wolf Segal belonged to a Jewish family. His father was a prominent New York rabbi, who expected him to follow in his footsteps. He studied at Harvard University, where he proved that he was a great student. He eventually became a professor of Greek and Latin at the best American and English universities, such as Yale and Oxford. At the age of 32, when he was a professor at Harvard, he wrote his novel “Love Story”, his first novel.
To compose the main character, he was inspired by two of his best Harvard students, the future vice president Al Gore, and the now established actor Tommy Lee Jones . Apparently he was joking with the fact that he never apologized to them, because the writer never said “I’m sorry.”
The book was an unusual success, so he decided to pursue his true passion, writing. He himself was in charge of writing the script for the film, a task for which he received one of the film’s seven Oscar nominations, which in the end only obtained the one for best music, for the unforgettable musical theme by Francis Lai .
The writer took the opportunity to lend a hand to his friend and student Tommy Lee Jones. He recommended director Arthur Hiller to cast him in the role that marked his big screen debut.
Segal himself lived his own “love story” when he fell in love with the British Karen Marianne James, whom he married in 1975, and with whom he has been together until his death. The marriage had two children.
Segal went on to write various novels and the scripts for films such as Yellow Submarine , starring The Beatles. Other of his titles are Proof of Courage and Oliver’s Story , a deteriorated sequel to Love Story .
In 1979 he was awarded the San Valentin di Terni prize for his humanistic work, together with Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the actor Peter Ustinov .