Twice Oscar-nominated screenwriter and Emmy-winning television writer Stewart Stern, who wrote film classic "Rebel Without a Cause," Dennis Hopper's "The Last Movie" and seminal telepic "Sybil," starring Sally Field, died February 2 at the Swedish Hospital in Seattle, after battling cancer. He was 92.
Stern's credits included the iconic 1955 James Dean teen rebellion drama "Rebel Without a Cause (screenplay by Stern, adaptation by Irving Shulman, story by Nicholas Ray), as well as a documentary feature on the late actor, "The James Dean Story" (1957), co-directed by Robert Altman; 1971's notorious counterculture indie drama "The Last Movie," co-written and directed by Hopper (written by Stern, story by Hopper and Stern); 1963's The Ugly American," starring Marlon Brando (screenplay & screen story by Stern, from the novel by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick), which earned Stern a Writers Guild Award nomination for best written American drama; and the Paul Newman-directed 1968 film "Rachel, Rachel," starring Joanne Woodward, for which he earned an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay as well as a WGA nomination for best written American drama.
His other screenwriting credits included "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams" (1973); "The Rack" (1956), starring Paul Newman; "The Outsider" (1961); "Thunder in the Sun" (1959, screenplay by Russell Rouse, adaptation by Stern); and his debut feature film, "Teresa" (screenplay by Stern, story by Alfred Hayes and Stern), for which he earned his first Oscar nomination for best writing, motion picture story, shared with Hayes. He also wrote the Oscar-winning short film "Benjy" (1951).