Barbara Benedek
Barbara Benedek (born 1948) is an American screenwriter best known for co-writing the 1983 film The Big Chill, for which she received a Writers Guild of America Award and several award nominations. Career Benedek was a psychiatric researcher prior to becoming interested in screenwriting. Her first entertainment industry job was as sitcom storywriter and editor for Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions. Her first film screenplay was for the 1983 comedy-drama film The Big Chill. For her work on the film she received, along with co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1984. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, and was runner-up for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award. She went on to write screenplays for Immediate Family (1989) and Men Don't Leave (1990). In his two-star review of Men Don't Leave, Roger Ebert speculated that Benedek's screenplay started out "a good deal more realistic and honest," but that it was subject to detrimental revisions in the filmmaking process. Benedek was an uncredited writer for the 1990 film Pretty Woman. According to director Garry Marshall, "We had five