Lee Server
{{short description|American writer (1953–2021)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lee Server
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Lee Server.jpg
| caption = Server's dust jacket photo
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1953|5|27}}
| birth_place = Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|12|28|1953|5|27}}
| death_place =
| alma_mater = New York University
| occupation = {{hlist|Author|biographer|screenwriter}}
| years_active = 1987–2021
| works =
| party =
| spouse = Terri Hardin
}}
Lee Server (May 27, 1953 – December 28, 2021) was an American writer. He was a graduate of New York University Film School.Danger Is My Business: An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 1993 (p.145). Server wrote several books about Hollywood cinema and pulp fiction.
Personal life
Server was born on May 27, 1953, in Springfield, Massachusetts.{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/lee-server-obituary?id=32778270|title=Lee Server|type=obituary|publisher=Los Angeles Times|website=Legacy.com|date=February 6, 2022|access-date=May 3, 2022}} He was married to Terri Hardin.{{cite web|url=https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2022/01/obituary-lee-server/|title=Obituary: Lee Server|last=Somers|first=Erin|website=Publishers Lunch|date=January 11, 2022|access-date=May 3, 2022}} Server died on December 28, 2021, in Palm Springs, California, at the age of 68.
Career
In the mid-1980s, Server set out to interview as many Golden Age Hollywood screenwriters as he could locate. After talking to 23 all-but-forgotten writers about working inside the studio system during the 1930s and '40s, Server selected 12 of the interviews to be published as his first book, Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures. Disgruntled with his contemporaries' tendency to emphasize the director's contributions to the filmmaking process, Server felt that "the time has come to shine a bit more light in the direction of the neglected screenwriter." The Black List's official screenwriting blog has saluted Server's effort, citing Words Become Pictures as one of the 10 most essential books about screenwriting from the perspective of working screenwriters.{{Cite web |last=Myers |first=Scott |date=2016-10-27 |title=Reader Question: What screenplays and screenwriting books should I read? |url=https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/reader-question-what-screenplays-and-screenwriting-books-should-i-read-7b259b90029e |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=Medium |language=en}}
Server's book on Ava Gardner, Love is Nothing (2006) was described as an "excellent biography" by Peter Bogdanovich.[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23bogdanovich.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0 "Ava's Allure"]. Peter
Bogdanovich, New York Times, April 23, 2006. Retrieved January 22 2013.
On March 20, 2019, Server joined George Noory on the Coast to Coast radio program to discuss his most recent book, Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin. [https://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/server-lee/99122] Lee Server on the colorful life of mobster Johnny Rosselli, Coast to Coast, March 20, 2019.
Books
- Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin (2018)
- Ava Gardner: "Love is Nothing" (2006)
- Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers (2002)
- Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't Care" (2001)
- Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers (2001)
- Asian Pop Cinema: Bombay to Tokyo (1999)
- The Big Book of Noir (1998)
- Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955 (1994)
- Sam Fuller: Film is a Battleground: A Critical Study, with Interviews, A Filmography, and a Bibliography (1994)
- Danger is My Business: An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines: 1896-1953 (1993)
- Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures (1987)
References
External links
- [http://www.noirfilm.com/BC_Lee_Server.htm The Big Chat, Interview Series, Interview with: Lee Server]
- Profile by Esther Cross, "Cuentame tu Vida", Buenos Aires [http://www.lamujerdemivida.com.ar/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124]
- NY Times Book Review, review by Peter Bogdanovich [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23bogdanovich.html]
- Lee Server Interviewed at Silver Screen Oasis [http://silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1739]
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Category:American male writers
Category:Tisch School of the Arts alumni
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