Gregory Allen Howard
{{short description|American screenwriter (1952–2023)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{more citations needed|biography|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gregory Allen Howard
| image =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1952|01|28}}
| birth_place = Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|01|27|1952|01|28}}
| death_place = Miami, Florida, U.S.
| othername =
| occupation = Screenwriter
| alma_mater = Princeton University
| notable_works = Remember the Titans, Harriet, Ali
| mother = Narcissus Cole Howard Henley
| relatives = Lenard Henley (step-father), Debbie Howard and Lynette Henley(sisters),Ricardo Henley and Michael Henley (brothers)
}}
Gregory Allen Howard (January 28, 1952 – January 27, 2023) was an American journalist, playwright and Hollywood screenwriter.{{Cite web |last=Crowther |first=Linnea |date=2023-01-31 |title=Gregory Allen Howard (1952–2023), Remember the Titans screenwriter |url=https://www.legacy.com/news/celebrity-deaths/gregory-allen-howard-1952-2023-remember-the-titans-screenwriter/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Legacy.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Rehagen |first=Tony |date=2021-09-23 |title=50 Years Later, the Team Reveals the True Story of Remember the Titans |url=https://northernvirginiamag.com/culture/culture-features/2021/09/23/remember-the-titans/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Northern Virginia Magazine |language=en-US}} He is best known for composing the screenplay to Disney's award-winning mega movie staple Remember the Titans,{{Cite news |last=Traub |first=Alex |date=2023-01-30 |title=Gregory Allen Howard, Screenwriter of 'Remember the Titans,' Dies at 70 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/29/obituaries/gregory-allen-howard-dead.html |access-date=2023-05-09 |issn=0362-4331}} a film chronicling the real life story of the racial barrier-breaking T.C. Williams High School football team{{Cite web |date=2021-04-12 |title=High school from iconic Denzel Washington movie 'Remember The Titans' is changing its name due to racism |url=https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/547693-high-school-from-iconic-denzel-washington-movie-remember/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=The Hill |language=en-US}} recognized as the sports force to incite community integration in its notoriously Deep South-segregated Alexandria, Virginia, of 1971.{{Cite web |title=CNN Transcript - CNN Today: Gregory Allen Howard Discusses Era of Integration in 'Remember the Titans' - January 15, 2001 |url=http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0101/15/tod.12.html |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=CNN}}{{cite web|url=http://www.enprimeur.ca/index.asp?pageID=18&m_id=9753&language=E|title=ENPRIMEUR.CA|publisher=www.enprimeur.ca|access-date=January 22, 2008|first=}} Howard is the first African American screenwriter in Hollywood history to script a $100 million-generating motion picture drama,{{Cite news |title=Gregory Allen Howard, screenwriter of 'Remember the Titans,' dies at 70 |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/01/28/gregory-allen-howard-titans-dies/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |issn=0190-8286}} and the only African American screenwriter in film history to write a spec script that garnered $100 million in revenue.{{Cite web |author=Mark Kennedy|agency=Associated Press |date=2023-01-29 |title=Gregory Allen Howard, who wrote 'Remember the Titans,' dies at 70 |url=https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2023-01-29/gregory-allen-howard-who-wrote-remember-the-titans-dies |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2021-04-20 |title=AP Top 25 sports movies list, vote totals |url=https://apnews.com/article/sports-general-sports-movies-2337bdb7da176b61b8c5b3c406981417 |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}
Early life
Gregory Allen Howard was born on January 28, 1952, in Norfolk, Virginia.{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Carly |title=Gregory Allen Howard, 'Remember the Titans' and 'Harriet' Writer, Dies at 70 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/gregory-allen-howard-dead-remember-the-titans-harriet-writer-1235311854/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=January 28, 2023 |access-date=January 28, 2023}} As the second of two children born to Narcissus Cole Howard, a full time mother-turned school teacher, and Lowry Marion Howard, Gregory and sister Debbie would see their mother's marriage to their "card shark" father end in divorce early on their childhood.{{Cite web |date=2023-01-30 |title=Vallejo screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard dies |url=https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2023/01/30/vallejo-screenwriter-gregory-allen-howard-dies |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Times-Herald |language=en-US}} When Gregory was five-years-old, mother Narcissus was remarried to Lenard Henley, a US Navy sailor who would become step-father to Gregory and older sister Debbie and would go on to father Gregory's younger sister Lynette Henley and brother Michael Henley.{{Cite web |date=2000-10-05 |title=TITANS WRITER FOUND HIS INSPIRATION BY ACCIDENT |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2000-10-05-0010040385-story.html |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Sun Sentinel |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Crowther |first=Linnea |date=2023-01-31 |title=Gregory Allen Howard (1952–2023), Remember the Titans screenwriter |url=https://www.legacy.com/news/celebrity-deaths/gregory-allen-howard-1952-2023-remember-the-titans-screenwriter/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Legacy.com |language=en-US}} Due to his stepfather's military naval duty, Gregory and his family engaged annum-frequencies of out-of-state moves to Navy bases set in several different US cities.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/29/obituaries/gregory-allen-howard-dead.html|title = Gregory Allen Howard, Screenwriter of 'Remember the Titans,' Dies at 70|date = January 29, 2023|accessdate = January 29, 2023|last = Traub|first = Alex|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}} Over the course of a decade of Gregory's coming of age years, between the ages of five and 15, the Howard-Henley family moved a total of ten times. The period of relocations, which included stops in Norfolk, Virginia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, San Diego, California, Charleston, South Carolina, is an era that Gregory Howard described in his own words as "a vagabond existence that you live as a Navy family." {{Cite web |date=2023-01-30 |title=Vallejo screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard dies |url=https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2023/01/30/vallejo-screenwriter-gregory-allen-howard-dies |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Times-Herald |language=en-US}} Eventually, the family settled in "The Navy City" of Vallejo, California. Howard attended Vallejo High School, where he served as Vallejo High School class president. At Vallejo High, Howard was also an offensive lineman on the Vallejo Red Hawks football team. After attending college at Princeton University, graduating with a degree in American history, Howard briefly worked at Merrill Lynch on Wall Street before moving to Los Angeles in his mid-twenties to pursue a writing career.{{Cite web|url=http://www.gregoryallenhoward.com/about.html|title=About {{!}} Gregory Allen Howard|website=www.gregoryallenhoward.com|language=en-US|access-date=October 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723212714/http://gregoryallenhoward.com/about.html|archive-date=July 23, 2018|url-status=dead}}
Career
Over the next few years Howard worked as a freelance writer and on a number of television shows, including being a story editor for Where I Live and working on the 1990 short-lived FOX series True Colors. Howard also wrote a stage play, Tinseltown Trilogy, which garnered him awards.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/gregory-allen-howard|title=Gregory Howard {{!}} HuffPost|website=www.huffingtonpost.com|language=en|access-date=October 12, 2018}} Tinseltown Trilogy weaves together three interconnected one-act plays that focus on three men in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve.
Howard was then selected for the assignment to write an original screenplay for the biographical film of boxer Muhammad Ali.{{Cite book |last=Ezra |first=Michael |title=Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon |publisher=Temple University |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-5921-3-661-2 |location=The United States of America |pages=215}} Having finished the first draft and then moving back to his native Virginia, Howard discovered the story of the 1971 TC Williams Titans. Studio delays and rewrites meant that his first feature film, Ali, was not released until after his next script, Remember the Titans.
Remember the Titans was a spec script written by Gregory Allen Howard after he discovered the unique story of the integrated high school football team that the town of Alexandria, Virginia, credited for the town's positive race relations. He based the script on extensive research, including discussions with Coaches Herman Boone and Bill Yoast. Initially Howard encountered difficulty in getting his script produced.{{Citation needed|date=September 2014}} Eventually Jerry Bruckheimer agreed to produce the film.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-sep-30-ca-28945-story.html|title=Remembering the History of 'Titans'|last=Howard|first=Gregory Allen|date=September 20, 2000|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=September 27, 2008}} Starring Denzel Washington and Will Patton, Remember the Titans became a box-office hit, grossing over $100 million domestically.{{cite web|url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=rememberthetitans.htm|title=Remember the Titans: Domestic Total Gross|publisher=Box Office Mojo|access-date=September 27, 2008}}
After the release of Remember the Titans and Ali, Howard worked on a number of other projects. He was an uncredited writer for Glory Road, a sports drama released in 2006 that focused on Texas Western coach Don Haskins leading the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship in 1966.{{cite web|url=http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060113/ENT01/601130316/1057/ENT01|title=Movie critic rooting for feel-good 'Glory Road'|last=Hartman |first=Forrest |date=January 13, 2006|publisher=news.rgj.com|access-date=September 27, 2008}}
In 2004, Howard worked on the script for a film project with Morgan Freeman based on the 761st Tank Battalion, the first black armored unit to see combat in World War II.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3812117.stm|title=Actor Freeman plans war tribute|date=June 16, 2004|publisher=BBC News|access-date=September 27, 2008}} Howard also wrote a screenplay called Factor X, which Ridley Scott was attached to produce, and possibly direct, in 2006.{{cite web|last=Kit|first=Borys|title=Howard, Bana on list for 'Factor X'|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/howard-bana-list-factor-x-140459/|date=October 24, 2006|publisher=The Hollywood Reporter|access-date=January 17, 2025}}
In 2014, Howard completed the screenplay of a movie about the Soviet Airwomen of the Great Patriotic War called Night Witches and financed by the grandson of Boris Yeltsin.[https://variety.com/2013/film/news/remember-the-titans-world-war-ii-1200795005/ "'Remember the Titans' Scribe to Pen World War II Drama 'Night Witches'"], Variety Magazine, November 4, 2013. He co-wrote and co-produced the 2019 Harriet Tubman biographical film Harriet, for which he also received a "story by" credit.Dave McNary, [https://variety.com/2016/film/news/harriet-tubman-movie-1201764699/ ""Harriet Tubman Biopic in Development From 'Homeland' Director"], Variety, May 2, 2016.[https://shadowandact.com/charles-d-kings-macro-debra-martin-chase-and-director-seith-mann-team-up-for-harriet-tubman-film/ "Charles D. King's MACRO, Debra Martin Chase and Director Seith Mann Team Up for Harriet Tubman Film"], Shadow and Act April 20, 2017.Amanda N'Duka, [https://deadline.com/2017/02/cynthia-erivo-harriet-tubman-macro-movie-1201904555/ "Cynthia Erivo To Star As Harriet Tubman In Upcoming 'Harriet' Biopic"], Deadline Hollywood February 8, 2017.
On November 12, 2019, Howard's Black Panther Party script Power to the People was acquired by Paramount Pictures with George Tillman Jr. in talks to direct and Ben Affleck producing.{{cite news|first=Mike Jr.|last=Fleming|title=Paramount In Talks For George Tillman Jr-Helmed Black Panthers Pic 'Power To The People'; Script By 'Harriet's Gregory Allen Howard|url=https://deadline.com/2019/11/george-tillman-jr-black-panthers-power-to-the-people-gregory-allen-howard-ben-affleck-1202783983/|date=November 12, 2020|website=Deadline Hollywood |access-date=December 5, 2020}}
In 2020, Gregory Allen Howard was nominated{{Cite web |last1=Howard |first1=Katherine Schaffstall, Annie |last2=Schaffstall |first2=Katherine |last3=Howard |first3=Annie |date=2020-02-22 |title=NAACP Image Awards: Lizzo Named Entertainer of the Year; 'Just Mercy,' 'Black-ish' Among Top Winners |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/2020-naacp-image-award-winners-complete-list-updating-1276771/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}} for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture{{Cite web |title=2020 NAACP Image Awards: The Complete Winners List {{!}} Entertainment Tonight |url=https://www.etonline.com/2020-naacp-image-awards-the-complete-winners-list-141855 |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Entertainment Tonight |language=en-US}} over his screenplay for the Hollywood biopic film Harriet, based on the life and legacy of Harriet “The Black Moses” Tubman, famed conductor of The Underground Railroad.{{Cite web |title=Print The Legend: Writing The Screenplay For Harriet |url=https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/interview_screenwriter_gregory-allen-howard |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Focus Features |language=en}} In the weeks leading to the November 1st, 2019 US movie release of Harriet, Mr. Howard engaged several press interviews with mentions of racial inequality in Hollywood.{{Cite web |title=Hollywood exec suggested Julia Roberts play Harriet Tubman, biopic screenwriter says |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/movies/hollywood-exec-suggested-julia-roberts-play-harriet-tubman-biopic-screenwriter-n1086761 |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=NBC News |date=November 20, 2019 |language=en}} In a well documented 2019 interview with journalist Alissa Wilkinson, during which time he noted Harriet Tubman as “the underdog of underdogs," Howard, a staunch historian, revealed Harriet the film was 25-years in-the-making.{{Cite news |title=A Hollywood executive suggested Julia Roberts play Harriet Tubman, screenwriter said. The Internet was furious. |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/20/julia-roberts-harriet-tubman-suggestion/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |issn=0190-8286}} With reference made to the Oscars So White movement,{{Cite web |title=Oscar nominees discuss diversity in Hollywood amid the #OscarsSoWhite backlash |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-oscars-so-white-reaction-htmlstory.html |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Los Angeles Times |date=February 25, 2016 |language=en-US}} Howard alluded to the change that he said had to happen before Hollywood was ready for film production of his Harriet screenplay.{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Gregory Allen |date=2019-11-19 |title=Julia Roberts as Harriet Tubman? Gregory Allen Howard on 'Harriet's' difficult journey to the big screen |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-11-19/gregory-allen-howard-hollywood-harriet-tubman-oscars |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} “Listen, I wrote this. It’s my Valentine to black girls,”Howard noted. “If it inspires some black girls that they can do something amazing, then I’ve done my job.”{{Cite web |last=Wilkinson |first=Alissa |date=2019-11-04 |title=Why "the whole environment in Hollywood had to change" for Harriet to get made |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/11/4/20940561/harriet-interview-gregory-allen-howard |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Vox |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Fleming |first=Mike Jr. |date=2016-05-12 |title=Ballerina Misty Copeland's Life Story To Big Screen; New Line Sets 'Remember The Titans' Scribe Gregory Allen Howard |url=https://deadline.com/2016/05/ballerina-misty-copeland-movie-new-line-gregory-allen-howard-remember-the-titans-1201754150/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}
Death
Howard died from heart failure in Miami on January 27, 2023, one day shy of his 71st birthday.{{cite news|url = https://deadline.com/2023/01/gregory-allen-howard-dead-screenwriter-on-remember-the-titans-producer-was-70-obituary-1235243129/|title = Gregory Allen Howard Dies: Screenwriter On 'Remember The Titans' And Producer Was 70|work = Deadline Hollywood|date = January 27, 2023|accessdate = January 27, 2023|last = Haring|first = Bruce}}
Awards and nominations
| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" |
| Year
! Award ! Result ! Category ! Film or series |
|---|
| style="background-color: #EAEAEA;"
|2001 |rowspan=2|Black Reel Awards |Won |Theatrical - Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted) |
| 2002
|Nominated |Theatrical - Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted) |Ali |
| 2020
|NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Film) |
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080509163359/http://www.gregoryallenhoward.com/bio.html Official site]
- {{IMDb name|id=0397322|name=Gregory Allen Howard}}
{{Black Reel Award for Outstanding Screenplay, Adapted or Original}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Gregory Allen}}
Category:20th-century African-American writers
Category:20th-century American screenwriters
Category:21st-century African-American writers
Category:21st-century American screenwriters
Category:African-American film producers
Category:African-American screenwriters
Category:African-American television writers
Category:Television writers from California
Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:Screenwriters from Virginia