Screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard, who skillfully tailored stories of historic Black figures in “Remember the Titans” starring Denzel Washington, “Ali” with Will Smith and “Harriet” with Cynthia Erivo, has died. He was 70.
Howard died Friday at a clinic in Miami of heart failure, according to publicist Jeff Sanderson.
Howard was the 1st Black screenwriter to create a drama that produced $100 million at the box office when “Titans” crossed that milestone in 2000. It was about a serious-existence Black coach coming into a newly built-in Virginia university and serving to guide their soccer team to victory. It had the iconic line: “I really don’t care if you like every other or not. But you will respect each and every other.”
Howard stated he shopped the tale close to Hollywood with no good results. So he took a possibility and wrote the screenplay himself. ″They didn’t expect it to make considerably cash, but it grew to become a monster, creating $100 million,” he explained. “It created my vocation,” he explained to the Times-Herald of Vallejo, California, in 2009. The film produced the Related Press’ listing of the best 25 sports activities videos at any time manufactured.
Howard adopted up “Remember the Titans” with “Ali,” the 2002 Michael Mann-directed biopic of Muhammad Ali. Smith famously bulked up to perform Ali and was nominated for a greatest actor Oscar.
Howard also developed and co-wrote 2019′s “Harriet,” about abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Erivo lead a cast, that incorporated Leslie Odom Jr., Clarke Peters and Joe Alwyn.
“I received into this small business to publish about the complexity of the Black man. I wanted to publish about Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Marcus Garvey. I imagine it usually takes a Black guy to produce about Black males,” he explained to the Periods-Herald.
Born in Virginia, his household moved usually due to his stepfather’s job in the Navy. Right after attending Princeton University, graduating with a degree in American background, Howard briefly labored at Merrill Lynch on Wall Avenue before moving to Los Angeles in his mid-20s to pursue a creating occupation.
He wrote for Tv and penned the enjoy “Tinseltown Trilogy,” which targeted on three adult males in Los Angeles in excess of Christmastime as their stories interconnect and advise every other.
Howard also wrote “The Harlem Renaissance,” a minimal sequence for HBO, “Misty,” the story of prima ballerina Misty Copeland and “This Little Mild,” the Fannie Lou Hamer tale. Most a short while ago, he wrote the civil legal rights undertaking “Power to the People” for producer Ben Affleck and Paramount Images.
He is survived by a sister, Lynette Henley a brother, Michael Henley two nieces and a nephew.
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