John Patrick Shanley

John Patrick Shanley is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He also contributed articles on the performing arts to The New York Times among other publications. Shanley was born in The Bronx, New York City, to a telephone operator mother and a meat-packer father. Per his Editorial Review by Amazon, he was thrown out of St. Helene's kindergarten, banned from St. Anthony's hot lunch program and expelled from Cardinal Spellman High School. When asked why he had been treated in this way, he burst into tears and said he had no idea. Then he went into the United States Marines. He... is a graduate of New York University, and is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. For his script for the 1987 film, Moonstruck, Shanley won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. In 1990, Shanley directed his script of Joe Versus the Volcano. Shanley also wrote two songs for the movie: "Marooned Without You" and "The Cowboy Song." In 2002 Shanley was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame.
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