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Ernest Thompson is a Actor, Director and Scriptwriter American born on 6 november 1949 at Bellows Falls (USA)

Ernest Thompson

Ernest Thompson
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Nationality USA
Birth 6 november 1949 (75 years) at Bellows Falls (USA)
Awards Writers Guild of America Award

Ernest Thompson (born Richard Ernest Thompson; November 6, 1949) is an American writer, actor, and director.

Biography

Early life
Thompson was born as Richard Ernest Thompson in Bellows Falls, Vermont. He spent his early years in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, moving to Maryland as a junior high school student. He attended the University of Maryland and The Catholic University of America, graduating cum laude from American University in 1971.


Career
Thompson is known as the author of the play On Golden Pond, which he wrote at the age of twenty-eight. The play opened Off Off Broadway in 1978, starring Tom Aldredge and Frances Sternhagen. A great success at the Kennedy Center, it opened at the New Apollo Theater on Broadway February 28, 1979. Revived the following season at the Century Theatre, On Golden Pond ran for more than 400 performances. It went on to become a hit 1981 film, starring Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Thompson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1982, as well as awards from the Golden Globes and the Writers Guild of America.

Thompson’s second popular play, The West Side Waltz, opened on Broadway, starring Katharine Hepburn on November 19, 1981. Thompson is quoted as saying that The West Side Waltz came about after a telephone call he received on behalf of legendary screenwriter George Seaton, creator of such classics as Miracle On 34th Street, offering Thompson "the only George Seaton grant" to write a new play for the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. Thompson wrote and directed a television version based on the play, premiering on CBS Thanksgiving night 1995, starring Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli, Kathy Bates, and Jennifer Grey.

As an actor, Thompson's only Broadway appearance was as drifter Hal Carter in Summer Brave, William Inge's revised version of his play Picnic. He portrayed Ranger Matt Harper on NBC’s 1974 series Sierra and Dr. Phil Parker on ABC's Westside Medical. Fresh out of college, he appeared on the NBC soap opera Somerset as Tony Cooper #2 and in the television films The Rimers of Eldritch and F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Last of the Belles. Other acting credits include roles in the Bob Fosse movie Star 80 and Next Stop Wonderland, directed by Brad Anderson.

Thompson wrote the screenplay for the feature film Sweet Hearts Dance, directed by Robert Greenwald and starring Susan Sarandon and Don Johnson. He then went on to direct 1969, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Robert Downey, Jr., and Winona Ryder.

During the 1990s, Thompson wrote the television film Take Me Home Again (released on DVD as The Lies Boys Tell) in 1994, based on the novel by Lamar Herrin, starring Kirk Douglas and Craig T. Nelson, in which Thompson also appeared. He directed and acted opposite Shirley MacLaine and Jennifer Grey in The West Side Waltz and co-wrote and directed the Emmy-nominated Showtime movie Out of Time, starring James McDaniel and Mel Harris.

In 2000, Thompson directed his 12 short plays, The Penis Responds, Off Off Broadway, costarring with Richard Gilliland. In 2001, he directed his own live TV version of On Golden Pond, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. His play White People Christmas played at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, directed by Thompson.


Personal life
In 1991 his son August was born. In 1993, Thompson married Kristie Lanier at his home in New Hampshire, where he raised daughters Heather and Danielle. Thompson and Lanier later divorced. On Christmas Day in 2012, he married Kerrin (Rocha) Adrian.

Thompson lives most of the year in New Hampshire (very close to where On Golden Pond was filmed). In 2008, Thompson co-founded Whitebridge Farm Productions with partners Morgan Murphy and Lori Gigliotti-Murphy. He wrote, directed and starred in the company's first two movies, Heavenly Angle and Time and Charges, both of which were primarily filmed in the Granite State and offered by Whitebridge Farm Productions as On Location Training to anyone of any age or background interested in any aspect of filmmaking. More than 800 people participated. Thompson will be writing and directing the company's third movie in the summer of 2015.

Best films

On Golden Pond (1982)
(Theatre Play)

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Ernest Thompson (7 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Next Stop Wonderland, 1h44
Directed by Brad Anderson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romantic comedy, Romance
Themes Transport films, Rail transport films
Actors Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cara Buono, José Zúñiga, Sam Seder
Roles Nathan
Rating65% 3.294843.294843.294843.294843.29484
Two people, living in Boston and unlucky in love – a nurse, Erin, whose activist boyfriend, Sean, has just walked out on their relationship to help a Native American tribe fight off a land development deal, and a plumber, Alan, struggling to pay off family obligations while pursuing a career as a marine biologist – deal with personal and professional problems and stumble through relationships, continually crossing one another's paths without ever truly meeting and realizing how perfect they are for one another. Time and time again one almost catches the other's eye, but circumstances intervene. Finally, after a series of ups and downs, both of their budding relationships with others crash and burn, just in time for a chance meeting on the MBTA train heading to Wonderland station, on the outskirts of Boston.
Star 80
Star 80 (1984)
, 1h43
Directed by Bob Fosse
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Biography
Actors Mariel Hemingway, Eric Roberts, Cliff Robertson, Carroll Baker, Roger Rees, David Clennon
Roles Phil Wass
Rating67% 3.3964853.3964853.3964853.3964853.396485
A teenaged girl, Dorothy Hoogstraten, is working at a Dairy Queen in her hometown of Vancouver, Canada when a customer in his 20s, Paul Snider, makes her acquaintance. Snider becomes her date for a school dance, over the objections of Dorothy's mother, Nelly, who does not care for his manner, dress, or attempt to ingratiate himself with the family, Dorothy's younger sister in particular.
F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Last of the Belles, 1h38
Directed by George Schaefer
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Susan Sarandon, Blythe Danner, Richard Chamberlain, David Huffman, Ernest Thompson, Richard Hatch
Roles Earl Shoen
Rating53% 2.666562.666562.666562.666562.66656
Un récit semi-fictif de la façon dont l'écrivain F.Scott Fitzgerald a rencontré sa femme alors qu'il était dans l'armée et en poste en Alabama en 1919.

Director

1969
1969 (1988)
, 1h35
Directed by Ernest Thompson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Politique, Political films
Actors Robert Downey Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, Winona Ryder, Mariette Hartley, Bruce Dern, Joanna Cassidy
Rating56% 2.849652.849652.849652.849652.84965
The boys (Robert Downey, Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland) arrive on Easter morning and shout their greetings across the glen to their family during a lakeside Easter Sunrise service, much to the amusement of Ralph's younger sister Beth (Winona Ryder) and mother Ev (Joanna Cassidy) and embarrassment of Scott's mother Jessie (Mariette Hartley) and father Cliff (Bruce Dern).

Scriptwriter

1969
1969 (1988)
, 1h35
Directed by Ernest Thompson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Politique, Political films
Actors Robert Downey Jr., Kiefer Sutherland, Winona Ryder, Mariette Hartley, Bruce Dern, Joanna Cassidy
Roles Writer
Rating56% 2.849652.849652.849652.849652.84965
The boys (Robert Downey, Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland) arrive on Easter morning and shout their greetings across the glen to their family during a lakeside Easter Sunrise service, much to the amusement of Ralph's younger sister Beth (Winona Ryder) and mother Ev (Joanna Cassidy) and embarrassment of Scott's mother Jessie (Mariette Hartley) and father Cliff (Bruce Dern).
Sweet Hearts Dance, 1h41
Directed by Robert Greenwald
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Actors Don Johnson, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Daniels, Elizabeth Perkins, Justin Henry, Kate Reid
Roles Writer
Rating57% 2.852062.852062.852062.852062.85206
It's Halloween, and New England contractor Wiley Boon, married to his high school sweetheart Sandra and the father of three children, feels smothered after fifteen years of the same routine and is facing a midlife crisis. His best friend, local school board president Sam Manners, is on the verge of starting a relationship with Adie Nims, a recent transplant from Florida and the new teacher at the grade school. During Thanksgiving dinner, Wiley and Sandra have a minor disagreement that prompts him to leave his family and move into a mobile home to sort through his feelings of emotional unrest. Using subsequent holidays as a background, the film focuses on both their efforts to recapture the magic of their early years together.
On Golden Pond, 1h49
Directed by Mark Rydell
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama, Adventure, Romance
Themes Films about animals, Films about families, Seafaring films, Théâtre, Transport films, Films based on plays
Actors Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Troy Garity, Doug McKeon, Dabney Coleman
Roles Theatre Play
Rating75% 3.79743.79743.79743.79743.7974
An aging couple, Ethel and Norman Thayer, continue the long tradition of spending each summer at their cottage on a lake in the far reaches of northern New England called Golden Pond. When they first arrive, Ethel notices the loons calling on the lake "welcoming them home". As they resettle into their summer home, Norman's memory problems arise when he is unable to recognize several family photographs, which he copes with by frequently talking about death and growing old. They are visited by their only child, a daughter, Chelsea, who is somewhat estranged from her curmudgeon of a father. She introduces her parents to her fiance Bill and his thirteen-year-old son Billy. Norman tries to play mind games with Bill, an apparent pastime of his, but Bill won't hear of it, saying he can only take so much. In another conversation, Chelsea discusses with Ethel her frustration over her relationship with her overbearing father, feeling that even though she lives thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, she still feels like she's answering to him. Before they depart for a European vacation, Chelsea and Bill ask the Thayers to permit Billy to stay with them while they have some time to themselves. Norman, seeming more senile and cynical than usual due to his 80th birthday and heart palpitations, agrees to Billy's staying. Ethel tells him that he's the sweetest man in the world, but she is the only one who knows it.