William Goldman Filmography

Dreamcatcher

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Tom Sizemore, Donnie Wahlberg

Synopsis: Four men are changed forever by an act of mercy -- changes which have a profound impact many years later -- in this blend of horror and science fiction based on a novel by Stephen King. Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Henry (Thomas Jane), Pete (Timothy Olyphant), and Beaver (Jason Lee) were four friends Read More

Hearts in Atlantis

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis, Mika Boorem, David Morse

Synopsis: One of the short stories in a best-selling collection by author Stephen King becomes this mystery adapted for director Scott Hicks by screenwriter William Goldman, who previously transformed a King story into a box-office hit (Misery, 1990). In the summer of 1960, young Bobby Garfield (Anton Read More

Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Forest Whitaker

Synopsis: A documentary about the iconic career of actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood, Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows traces its subject's work from his earliest days in Hollywood to his award-winning (and career-salvaging) films of the 1990s. Directed by Bruce Ricker, who also made the lauded jazz Read More

The General's Daughter

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe, James Cromwell, Timothy Hutton, Leslie Stefanson, Daniel Von Bargen, Clarence Williams III, James Woods

Synopsis: A murder on a military base unearths a netherworld of corruption in this thriller based on the novel by Nelson DeMille. General Joe Campbell (James Cromwell) is a respected military leader with a flawless reputation; he's due to retire from the Army soon and is headed for a Vice-Presidential Read More

Absolute Power

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Judy Davis

Synopsis: In this thriller, an aging cat burglar becomes a crusader embroiled in a deadly cat-and-mouse game involving murder and a government cover-up. Adapted by distinguished scenarist William Goldman from a novel by David Baldacci and featuring a powerful all-star cast, the story works at different Read More

The Chamber

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, Robert Prosky, Lela Rochon, Millie Perkins, Raymond J. Barry

Synopsis: Based on a novel by John Grisham, this drama deals with a man trying to come to terms with his family and their ugly secrets. Adam Hall (Chris O'Donnell) is a successful attorney based in Chicago who travels to Mississippi to look into the case of Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman). An outspoken racist Read More

The Ghost and the Darkness

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer, Tom Wilkinson, John Kani, Om Puri, Bernard Hill

Synopsis: A man bringing modern transportation to the ancient jungles of Africa discovers one of man's oldest enemies lays in wait for him in this period adventure drama. John Beaumont (Tom Wilkinson) is the owner of a British railroad firm who is building a rail line through Uganda. A bridge is needed so Read More

Maverick

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Noah Emmerich, Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner, Graham Greene, James Coburn

Synopsis: A gunslinging con man develops a tricky scheme to make a killing at a major poker tournament in this comic Western inspired by the popular television show. Mel Gibson assumes the role of Bret Maverick, the handsome rogue who hopes to cheat his way to success. In need of a large stake to enter a Read More

Last Action Hero

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O'Brien, F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney, Frank McRae, Anthony Quinn, Charles Dance, Mercedes Ruehl

Synopsis: Arnold Schwarzenegger appears as a pumped-up Shakespearian hero while an announcer bellows, "Something is rotten in Denmark -- and Hamlet is taking out the trash!" This gag sets the stage for the post-modernist action epic The Last Action Hero. The film concerns Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien), a Read More

Indecent Proposal

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Redford, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Oliver Platt, Seymour Cassel

Synopsis: Adrian Lyne buffs the premise of Honeymoon in Vegas to a fine gloss in this yuppie melodrama that poses the conundrum of whether the loving husband of an equally loving wife will accept $1 million to allow his wife to spend one night with a billionaire who looks like Robert Redford. All the cynics Read More

Chaplin

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Downey, Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin, Kevin Dunn, Anthony Hopkins

Synopsis: Partly based on Charlie Chaplin's My Autobiography, this humorous and dramatic biopic features an all-star cast including Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Anthony Hopkins, Kevin Kline, Diane Lane, and Chaplin's real-life daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, who portrays his mentally ill Read More

Year of the Comet

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Penelope Ann Miller, Tim Daly, Louis Jourdan, Art Malik, Ian Richardson

Synopsis: In this film, young, headstrong Margaret Harwood (Penelope Ann Miller) is entrusted with a business assignment by her wine merchant father. While taking an inventory of the contents of the wine cellar of a Scottish estate, Margaret discovers an almost-priceless bottle of wine from the "year of the Read More

Memoirs of an Invisible Man

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Chevy Chase, Daryl Hannah, Sam Neill, Michael McKean, Stephen Tobolowsky

Synopsis: Chevy Chase stars, though not always visibly, as Nick Halloway, a low-level businessman with an acerbic approach to life and work, whose humdrum existence utterly bores him. Nick gets an unexpected jolt of excitement when, nursing a hangover, he's the only one not to evacuate an office building Read More

Misery

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: James Caan, Kathy Bates, Frances Sternhagen, Richard Farnsworth, Lauren Bacall

Synopsis: Adapted from a Stephen King novel, Rob Reiner's Misery cast James Caan as a writer at a career crossroads. The film opens with Paul Sheldon (Caan) completing work on his latest novel, a break from his popular series of novels featuring the character Misery Chastain. He gets into a severe car Read More

Twins

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Kelly Preston, Chloe Webb, Bonnie Bartlett

Synopsis: The central "gimmick" of the comedy-adventure Twins is established early on. Unbeknownst to one another, king-sized Arnold Schwarzenegger and gnomeish Danny De Vito are twin brothers. Even better: Schwarzenegger is a mild-mannered, bookish type, while De Vito is a vitriolic troublemaker. The film Read More

The Princess Bride

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright Penn, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest

Synopsis: Based on William Goldman's novel of the same name, The Princess Bride is staged as a book read by grandfather (Peter Falk) to his ill grandson (Fred Savage). Falk's character assures a romance-weary Savage that the book has much more to deliver than a simpering love story, including but not Read More

Heat

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Karen Young, Peter MacNicol, Howard Hesseman, Neil Barry

Synopsis: Burt Reynolds stars as the bitter bodyguard and degenerate gambler Mex in this uneven action film. He wakes up hungover, vowing to rekindle his dream of leaving Las Vegas for good if he can just raise enough money. Mex divides his time working for the low-key millionaire Cyrus Kinnick (Peter MacNicol Read More

The Right Stuff

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward

Synopsis: Covering some 15 years, The Right Stuff recounts the formation of America's space program, concentrating on the original Mercury astronauts. Scott Glenn plays Alan Shepard, the first American in space; Fred Ward is Gus Grissom, the benighted astronaut for whom nothing works out as planned; and Ed Harris Read More

Butch and Sundance: The Early Days

Crew: Producer

Actors: William Katt, Tom Berenger, Brian Dennehy, John Schuck, Peter Weller, Michael Gwynne, Jeff Corey

Synopsis: This "prequel" to the Newman/Redford vehicle Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was written by TV sitcom veteran Allan Burns and stars Tom Berenger as Butch and William Katt as Sundance. The film, per its title, traces the formative days of Butch and Sundance's careers as soft-hearted western Read More

Mr. Horn

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: John Malloy, David Carradine, Richard Widmark, Karen Black, Richard Masur, Clay Tanner

Synopsis: In this western, based on a William Goldman novel, the life of scout Tom Horn, an idealistic fellow whose life experiences turn him into a bitter bounty hunter, is chronicled. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Magic

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter, E.J. Andre

Synopsis: Anthony Hopkins is a ventriloquist psychologically tormented by his dummy in the Richard Attenborough thriller Magic (a film with a story that may seem familiar to those who have seen the Michael Redgrave segment of Dead of Night, or the Cliff Robertson episode "The Dummy" from The Twilight Zone Read More

A Bridge Too Far

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox

Synopsis: It's late 1944, and the Allied armies are confident they'll win the World War II and be home in time for Christmas. What's needed, says British general Bernard Law Montgomery, is a knockout punch, a bold strike through Holland, where German troops are spread thin, that will put the Allies into Read More

Marathon Man

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller

Synopsis: Doc Levy (Roy Scheider) is an American secret agent who has been running interference between the U.S. government and escaped Nazi war criminal Szell (Laurence Olivier). Believing that Doc has stolen a valuable cache of gems, Szell emerges from his South American hiding place and heads for New Read More

All the President's Men

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards, Jr.

Synopsis: Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula turned journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling account of their Watergate investigation into one of the hit films of Bicentennial year 1976. While researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Read More

The Stepford Wives

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman, Patrick O'Neal

Synopsis: In the William Goldman-scripted, Bryan Forbes-directed adaptation of Ira Levin's savagely satiric sci-fi novel The Stepford Wives, housewife Joanna (Katharine Ross) moves with husband Walter (Peter Masterson) and their children to the "ideal" suburban community of Stepford, CT. Slowly, Joanna Read More

The Great Waldo Pepper

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Redford, Bo Svenson, Bo Brundin, Susan Sarandon, Geoffrey Lewis

Synopsis: Robert Redford plays Waldo Pepper, a former World War I pilot who exaggerates his accomplishments in order to impress the rabble. After a brief rivalry with air-show entrepreneur Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson), Pepper teams with Axel to barnstorm all over the Midwest; later, after a series of unexpected Read More

The Hot Rock

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Lynne Gordon, Robert Redford, George Segal, Ron Leibman, Paul Sand, Zero Mostel

Synopsis: Peter Yates directs the early '70s comedy caper The Hot Rock, based on the Donald Westlake novel and adapted for the screen by William Goldman. Robert Redford stars as John Archibald Dortmunder, a former jewel thief just released from prison. His brother-in-law, Andrew Kelp (George Segal) Read More

The Cheerleaders

Actors: Stephanie Fondue, Denise Dillaway, Jovita Bush

Synopsis: A group of cheerleaders attempt to sap the energy of the opposing football team before a game. The film earned a sequel, Revenge of the Cheerleaders. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones

Synopsis: Opening with a silent "movie" of Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang, George Roy Hill's comically elegiac Western chronicles the mostly true tale of the outlaws' last months. Witty pals Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) join the Gang in successfully robbing yet another train with Read More

No Way to Treat a Lady

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal, Eileen Heckart, Murray Hamilton

Synopsis: New York detective Moe Brummell (George Segal) is assigned to track down a serial killer who has been preying on lonely middle-aged ladies. Each of the bodies is discovered with a lipstick kiss drawn on the forehead. We know (but Brummell doesn't) that the murderer is Christopher Gill (Rod Read More

Harper

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh

Synopsis: Screenwriter William Goldman has claimed that Paul Newman agreed to do Harper, the film that established the grateful writer's career, only because he was working unhappily on Lady L. (1965) in Europe, and was looking for something as unlike that film as possible. He stars as Lew Harper, a hip Read More

Masquerade

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Cliff Robertson, Jack Hawkins, Marisa Mell, Christopher Witty, Bill Fraser

Synopsis: In this blend of action-adventure and spy satire, the British government has been negotiating with the Middle Eastern nation of Ramaut to lease their oil fields for drilling by U.K. petroleum companies, but at the last minute, the deal collapses, and Col. Drexel (Jack Hawkins), a military leader Read More

Soldier in the Rain

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Jackie Gleason, Steve McQueen, Tuesday Weld, Tony Bill, Tom Poston

Synopsis: The unlikely duo of Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason star in this military comedy-drama. Gleason is Master Sergeant Max Slaughter, a corpulent man perfectly content with his solitary life in the Army, where his room and board are paid for and free sodas are his for the taking. His comrade, the Read More