Screenwriter from Rochester, MN

 

Barnes&Noble Rochester,MN

Last Friday my travels took me through Rochester, Minnesota which is located just a little bit above the Iowa-Minnesota border. Rochester is, of course, known for being home to the Mayo Clinic which is one of the most respected medical centers in the world.

It is also home to the coolest Barnes & Noble Booksellers building I have ever seen. It’s located downtown in the former Chateau Theatre which is a building on the National Register of Historic Places.

When I got home I decided to see if there were any screenwriters from Rochester and I found that Warren Skaaren who wrote Beetlejuice and Batman (1989) was not only born there in 1946 but attended its public schools and graduated from Rochester Community College in 1966. I’m sure he even went to a movie or two at the Chateau Theatre when it was still a movie theater. (He also earned his Eagle Scout badge in Rochester as well.)

He left Rochester in 1967 to attend Rice University in Houston where he was student body president and an art major. He after receiving his BA degree he became the first Film Commissioner of the State of Texas from 1971-1974. He made a feature documentary called Breakaway in the 80s and was an associate producer on Topgun in 1986 where he was also said to have done some script doctoring.

He gained a reputation as a Hollywood script doctor and there was even an article written on him by Emily Yoffe called The Man Hollywood Trusts. Unfortunately he died in his adopted hometown of Austin, Texas in 1990 at age 44 of bone cancer. The AP report when he died said the films he worked on as a screenwriter and script doctor grossed more than $1 billion dollars.

Not bad for a Eagle Scout from Rochester. And one more example of a writer rising up from a place far from Hollywood.

 

words and photo copyright 2009 Scott W. Smith