WRITER

Melissa Mathison

1950 - 2015

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Melissa Marie Mathison (June 3, 1950 – November 4, 2015) was an American film and television screenwriter and an activist for the Tibetan independence movement. She was best known for writing the screenplays for the films The Black Stallion (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the latter of which earned her the Saturn Award for Best Writing and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Mathison later wrote The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), based on Lynne Reid Banks's 1980 children's novel of the same name, and Kundun (1997), a biographical-drama film about the Dalai Lama. Her final film credit was The BFG (2016), which marked her third collaboration with film director Steven Spielberg. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Melissa Mathison is the 4,140th most popular writer (down from 4,010th in 2019), the 6,096th most popular biography from United States (down from 5,242nd in 2019) and the 464th most popular American Writer.

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Among WRITERS

Among writers, Melissa Mathison ranks 4,140 out of 7,302Before her are Titsian Tabidze, Elizabeth Bowen, Vasco Pratolini, Peter Straub, Hranush Arshagyan, and Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz. After her are Jean de Brunhoff, Sonny Barger, Alexander Serafimovich, David Lagercrantz, Reinhard Bonnke, and Anne-Cath. Vestly.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1950, Melissa Mathison ranks 314Before her are Francisco Fernández Ochoa, Ronald McNair, Richard Berry, George Yonashiro, Knut Knudsen, and Héctor Baley. After her are Yumiko Igarashi, Gualberto do Rosário, Ján Švehlík, L. Scott Caldwell, Leonard Whiting, and James Redfield. Among people deceased in 2015, Melissa Mathison ranks 256Before her are Karl-Erik Palmér, Oleg Bryjak, Elio Toaff, Olene Walker, Slavko Avsenik, and Oʻtkir Sultonov. After her are Richard Anthony, Karl H. Pribram, Elizabeth Wilson, Hermann Zapf, Danièle Delorme, and Gheorghe Gruia.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Melissa Mathison ranks 6,096 out of 20,380Before her are William J. Donovan (1883), William Windom (1923), Phyllis Smith (1951), Peter Straub (1943), Alexander Wetmore (1886), and Eric Martin (1960). After her are Charlie Robinson (1945), Sonny Barger (1938), Jack Benny (1894), Sam Witwer (1977), Frederic Rzewski (1938), and Troy Donahue (1936).

Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Melissa Mathison ranks 464Before her are Leigh Brackett (1915), Laura Bridgman (1829), Mark Frost (1953), Lilian Jackson Braun (1913), Louis Bromfield (1896), and Peter Straub (1943). After her are Sonny Barger (1938), James Thurber (1894), Hart Crane (1899), Edna Ferber (1885), Robert G. Ingersoll (1833), and James Redfield (1950).