Jay Presson AllenFilmography

Born:: March 3, 1922 in Fort Worth, TX
Occupation:: Executive Producer, Producer, Screenwriter, Play Author
Birth name:: Jacqueline Presson
Biography:: Screenwriter and playwright Jay Presson Allen was something of a late-bloomer, but quickly established one of the most successful and enduring writing careers in the movie business. Serving her creative apprenticeship in live television, Jay Presson Allen penned her first film script, Wives and Lovers...Read More

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The Celluloid Closet

Actors: Antonio Banderas, Whoopi Goldberg, Susan Sarandon, Sharon Stone, Tony Curtis, Harvey Fierstein, Tom Hanks, Lily Tomlin, Gore Vidal

Synopsis: Based on Vito Russo's groundbreaking 1981 work of film history, The Celluloid Closet gathers clips from dozens of mainstream Hollywood films to illustrate how the movies have dealt explicitly -- and more importantly, implicitly -- with gay and lesbian themes. Layered between the clips are Read More

1995
The Cemetery Club

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Ellen Burstyn, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Diane Ladd, Lainie Kazan

Synopsis: Based on the play by Ivan Menchell, this drama concerns three friends, Doris (Olympia Dukakis), Lucille (Diane Ladd), and Esther (Ellen Burstyn). All three live in the same Jewish community in Pittsburgh, are in their mid-to-late 50s, and have become widows within the past few months. Once a week Read More

1993
The Prince of Tides

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Nick Nolte, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner, Kate Nelligan, Jeroen Krabbé

Synopsis: Barbra Streisand directed and stars in this love story about two people of dissimilar backgrounds who form a connection based on their unhappy experiences. Adapted from the novel by Pat Conroy, the story concerns Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte), a rudderless, unemployed football coach. Stuck in a loveless Read More

12/25/91
Year of the Gun

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Andrew McCarthy, Valeria Golino, Sharon Stone, John Pankow, Mattia Sbragia

Synopsis: In this thriller, American novelist David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) accidentally becomes entangled in the Red Brigade's terrorist plan to kidnap Italian Premier Aldo Moro during a research trip to Rome. As the terrorists attempt to kill David, he and his photojournalist friend (Sharon Stone) Read More

11/1/91
Lord of the Flies

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Balthazar Getty, Chris Furrh, Danuel Pipoly, Badgett Dale, Edward Taft, Andrew Taft

Synopsis: Harry Hook directed this second screen adaptation of William Golding's cult novel about a group of British schoolchildren who revert to savagery when marooned on a deserted island. The new adaptation replaces British school children with a group of American military cadets and instead of a Read More

3/16/90
The Morning After

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Raul Julia, Diane Salinger, Richard Foronjy

Synopsis: In this excellent thriller, crisply directed by Sidney Lumet, Alex Sternbergen (Jane Fonda), a washed-up, alcoholic actress who never quite made it, wakes up one morning in an unfamiliar, luxurious loft apartment, only to find the corpse of a stranger next to her in bed. Alex can remember nothing Read More

12/25/86
Deathtrap

Crew: Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth, Henry Jones

Synopsis: Sidney Lumet provides another of his film adaptations of Broadway successes -- in this case Ira Levin's 1978 clever Broadway murder mystery that starred John Wood in a triumphant turn as down-on-his-luck playwright Sidney Bruhl. Wood's brittle airiness is replaced in the film version by Michael Caine Read More

1982
Prince of the City

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett, Kenny Marino, James Tolkan

Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, Prince of the City stars Treat Williams as a Manhattan detective who agrees to help the US Department of Justice weed out corruption in the NYPD. Williams agrees on the assurance that he'll never have to turn in a close friend. Wired for sound, Williams almost immediately Read More

1981
It's My Turn

Crew: Executive Producer, Producer

Actors: Jill Clayburgh, Michael Douglas, Charles Grodin, Beverly Garland, Steven Hill

Synopsis: Claudia Weill's second feature is a romantic look at the humorous and tragic sides of love, starring Jill Clayburgh as Kate Gunzinger, a mathematics professor who lives with perpetually sunny architect Homer (Charles Grodin) in Chicago. But during a trip to New York City, Kate becomes romantically Read More

1980
Just Tell Me What You Want

Crew: Book Author, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Alan King, Ali MacGraw, Dina Merrill, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: In this Sidney Lumet romantic comedy, Max Herschel (Alan King) is a powerful businessman who keeps a bevy of beauties for pleasure to escape his alcoholic wife, Connie (Dina Merrill). His main minx is Bones Burton (Ali MacGraw), a successful television producer who is tiring of Max's lack of Read More

1980
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Crew: Teleplay By

Actors: Geraldine McEwan, Lucinda Bateson, Ann Mitchell, Maxine Gordon, Lynsey Baxter

Synopsis: Nine years after Jay Presson Allen's theatrical version of the Muriel Spark novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was adapted as a film with Maggie Smith in the title role, the property served as the basis for a seven-part British miniseries. Geraldine McEwan starred as Miss Jean Brodie, a highly Read More

1978
Family [TV Series]

Crew: Show Creator

Actors: Sada Thompson, James Broderick, Kristy McNichol, Gary Frank

1976
Funny Lady

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall, Ben Vereen

Synopsis: Funny Lady, the follow-up to the 1968 Funny Girl which made a movie star of Barbra Streisand, picks up the character of Fanny Brice in the 1930s. Although she is a tremendously famous Broadway star, she has suffered from the stock market crash and needs to boost her finances. Even Ziegfeld, who Read More

1975
40 Carats

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Liv Ullmann, Edward Albert, Gene Kelly, Deborah Raffin

Synopsis: Adapted by Jay Presson Allen from the French farce by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, Forty Carats is a standard-issue sex comedy elevated by the performances of its stars. Fortyish Realtor Ann Stanley (Liv Ullman) finds herself attracted to Peter Latham (Edward Albert) - a man literally Read More

1973
The Borrowers

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Eddie Albert, Tammy Grimes

Synopsis: Fans of the 1970s cartoon series The Littles may enjoy its live-action spiritual ancestor The Borrowers. Dennis Larson plays an eight-year-old boy living in Victorian England. While exploring his aunt's (Dame Judith Anderson) mansion, Larson peeks under the floorboards...and what should he see but Read More

1973
Cabaret

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey, Helmut Griem, Marisa Berenson, Fritz Wepper

Synopsis: Originally a 1966 Broadway musical, this groundbreaking Bob Fosse musical was in turn based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, previously dramatized for stage and screen as I Am a Camera with Julie Harris as Sally Bowles. Fosse uses the decadent and vulgar cabaret as a mirror image of Read More

2/13/72
Travels with My Aunt

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Olive Behrendt, Nora Norman, Maggie Smith, Alec McCowen, Louis Gossett, Jr., Robert Stephens, Cindy Williams

Synopsis: In the lively comedy/adventure Travels with My Aunt, adapted from Graham Green's book, Henry (Alec McCowan), a timid, bookish accountant whose life seems to have died stillborn, discovers how to live with gusto thanks to the rough ministrations of his thoroughly eccentric aunt Augusta (Maggie Smith Read More

1972
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie stars Maggie Smith in the title role. Smith won an Academy Award for her delicately textured portrayal of an eccentric teacher at an exclusive Scottish girl's school. Miss Jean exhorts her "gels" to follow their hearts and never Read More

1969
Marnie

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker, Martin Gabel, Louise Latham

Synopsis: Condemned as being a "disappointing" and "unworthy" Alfred Hitchcock effort at the time of its release, Marnie has since grown in stature; it is still considered a lesser Hitchcock, but a fascinating one. Tippi Hedren plays Marnie, a compulsive thief who cannot stand to be touched by any man. She Read More

1964
Wives and Lovers

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Janet Leigh, Van Johnson, Shelley Winters, Martha Hyer, Ray Walston

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, Bill Austin (Van Johnson) is an unsuccessful writer who lives in a forlorn New York tenement while his wife Bertie (Janet Leigh) earns an income for both of them. Their lives change dramatically when Bill's first novel becomes a best-seller. Bill persuades Bertie to quit Read More

1963