Ernest Tidyman

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Ernest Tidyman (January 1, 1928 - July 14, 1984) was a Cleveland-born American author and screenwriter, best known for his novels featuring the African-American detective John Shaft. He also co-wrote the film version of Shaft with John D.F. Black in 1971.

His screenplay for The French Connection garnered him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as a Golden Globe Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award.

He also wrote the screenplay for the 1973 film High Plains Drifter, which was directed by Clint Eastwood, who was also it's star. Tidyman also wrote the sequel to Shaft, the less successful Shaft's Big Score which appeared in theaters in 1972.

In 1974, he published Dummy, a novel based on the true story of a deaf-mute murderer.

Thereafter, Tidyman never attained the kind of success he enjoyed with The French Connection and the Shaft series, although he had a high note in 1980 with his teleplay for the TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (which he also had a hand in producing), which garnered him an Emmy nomination. For creating the Shaft books, he became one of the few white individuals to win an NAACP Image Award.

In 1982, he married former Motown soul singer Chris Clark, who had co-written the screenplay for Lady Sings the Blues (1972). Sadly, he died just 2 years later from a perforated ulcer.

[edit] Filmography

• The French Connection (1971)
• High Plains Drifter (1973)