Celebrity Biographies
Winston Groom
Winston Groom wrote “Forrest Gump”, which gave rise to the six-Oscar-winning film in 1944. The author died on September 17, 2020, at the age of 77, in Fairhope, a city in southern Alabama, as confirmed by networks Karin Wilson, mayor of the town. “Our community has lost an iconic author,” she wrote.
Born on March 23, 1943 in Washington, Winston F. Groom was going to be a lawyer, so he graduated with a law degree from the University of Alabama. But while studying he decided to become a writer. After serving in the army during the Vietnam War, he worked as a reporter for the “Washington Star” newspaper, and debuted as a novelist with “Better Times Than These”, from 1978. “Conversations with the Enemy”, from 1982, has as It stars an American soldier who during the Vietnam War escapes from a prison camp and boards a plane back to the United States only to be arrested 14 years later for desertion. This work was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1984.
In 1986 he published Forrest Gump , which nevertheless went unnoticed, until the film starring Tom Hanks swept the billboards. Apparently, Groom was complaining that Paramount had resorted to financial tricks to hide the film’s profits from him and not pay him the full 3 percent due.
In 2016 he had published “El Paso”, his latest work. His wife, Susan, has been with him until his death.