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Charles Shyer, the Oscar-nominated author and filmmaker identified for traditional comedies like “Non-public Benjamin,” “Child Increase” and “Father of the Bride” that he made alongside Nancy Meyers, has died. He was 83.
Shyer died in Los Angeles on Friday, his daughter, filmmaker Hallie Meyers-Shyer advised The Related Press on Sunday. No trigger was disclosed.
A son of Hollywood, whose father Melville Shyer was one of many founding members of the Administrators Guild of America, Shyer made an indelible mark on comedies, largely of the romantic persuasion, within the 1980s and 1990s.
Born in Los Angeles in 1941, Shyer reduce his enamel writing for tv, helping Garry Marshall and dealing on reveals like “The Odd Couple” earlier than transitioning to movies. He had writing credit on “Smokey and the Bandit,” Jack Nicholson’s “Goin’ South” and the Walter Matthau drama “Home Calls.” A giant breakthrough got here with “Non-public Benjamin,” the Goldie Hawn comedy a couple of rich lady who inadvertently indicators up for primary coaching, which he co-wrote with Meyers and Harvey Miller.
It was a script that was initially turned down by each studio in Hollywood, even with Hawn hooked up to star and produce.
“We went to a gathering at Paramount after they learn the script, and Mike Eisner was the president of the studio, and we sat in his workplace with Mike and Don Simpson. And Mike mentioned to Goldie, ‘This can be a mistake so that you can make this film,’” Shyer advised Indiewire in 2022. “God bless Don Simpson who spoke up and mentioned, ‘Mike, you’re 100% unsuitable on this one.’”
The film turned one of many largest hits of 1980. It acquired them an Oscar nomination and a win from the Writers Guild and likewise paved the way in which for his directorial debut “Irreconcilable Variations.”
That movie, which he additionally wrote with Meyers , starred Shelley Lengthy and Ryan O’Neal as a writing-directing duo whose relationship crumbles after success and an infatuation with a younger actor performed by Sharon Stone. It was partially impressed by the tabloid affairs of Peter Bogdanovich, who left his spouse and producer Polly Platt for Cybill Shepherd.
“Nancy and I simply laughed on the similar issues. We love the identical motion pictures, we type of educate one another on the flicks that every of us beloved,” Shyer advised The Hollywood Reporter. “And Nancy actually made me chuckle. I feel she wrote one of the best one-liners of anyone I do know, besides Neil Simon. And, and we have been simply all the time in sync — as filmmakers, we had this factor.”
They adopted with “Child Increase,” wherein Diane Keaton performs a working lady who immediately has to take care of a child, and “Father of the Bride,” which reimagined Vincente Minnelli’s 1950 movie for the 1990s with Keaton, Steve Martin and Martin Quick main the comedic ensemble. It was profitable sufficient to spawn a sequel.
Shyer and Meyers’ final collaboration as a married couple earlier than divorcing in 1999 was the remake of “The Guardian Entice,” with Lindsay Lohan, which Meyers directed and Shyer co-wrote and produced. Their daughters Annie and Hallie, whose names have been used for Lohan’s twin characters, each appeared within the movie. Shyer can also be survived by two youngsters, Jacob and Sophia, from a subsequent marriage that led to divorce.
Whereas Shyer typically discovered himself doing remakes, he and Meyers by no means wished to do “carbon copies” of the originals and all the time endeavored to place their very own stamp on their movies. However even he was shocked by the longevity of a few of them, remembering an previous Billy Wilder quote that “comedy shouldn’t be like nice wine, it doesn’t age properly.” However, he mentioned, they tried to keep away from the temptation to incorporate too many well timed references.
“You attempt to write issues that aren’t mainly of the second, particularly in comedy,” he advised Indiewire. “Attempt to write tales about human beings that may mirror on at this time and tomorrow and yesterday.”
Shyer went on to remake “Alfie,” with Jude Legislation, and the Hilary Swank interval drama “The Affair of the Necklace,” neither of which did properly on the field workplace. He additionally directed the Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte film “I Love Bother,” the one movie of his that he admitted he did not like.
Different movies by no means noticed the sunshine of day: He spent a yr and a half prepping “Eloise in Paris” nevertheless it was canceled when the manufacturing firm immediately went out of enterprise.
He stepped away from directing for a few years however returned lately with two Netflix Christmas romantic comedies: “The Noel Diary” and “Greatest. Christmas. Ever!”
“I simply gravitated in direction of stuff I like,” he advised Indiewire. “I’ve by no means seen a James Bond film. I’ve by no means seen one. I by no means appreciated science-fiction motion pictures. … I like motion pictures about folks, and I would like them to have substance.”
Shyer had advised Indiewire that he was engaged on a script he’d been serious about for many years, since he was hospitalized briefly at 17. He described the film as a cross between “The 400 Blows” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” And retirement, he mentioned on the time, was not within the playing cards.
“What am I going to do? Backyard?” he mentioned. “I simply have lots of power. I wish to hold going. I really love the method and I really like the camaraderie. I really like what I do. If I drop lifeless, possibly will probably be holding a digicam.”
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