When we watch movies and TV shows, we mainly remember the actors and directors. And we almost never think about who writes these sparkling dialogues for the heroes or comes up with such a twisted plot … Meanwhile, all this is done by scriptwriters such as David Edward Kelly, known from many popular TV series.
From under his pen came the scripts for the series "Palisade" (1992-1996), "Hope Chicago" (1996 - 2000), "Boston Lawyers" (2004-2008), "Lake of Fear" (2007) and many others. In addition to writing scripts, David several times became an actor in various projects, and is also a producer of dozens of films and TV series.
In addition, he has created several television programs that are broadcast on all four of the leading commercial television networks in the United States (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC).
Biography
David Edward Kelly was born in 1956 in Waterville, Maine, raised in Belmont, Massachusetts, and attended Belmont Hill School. His father is Jack Kelly, a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. David himself played for the New England team in the 1972-1973 season when his father coached it. He was also the captain of the hockey team at Princeton University, where he studied political science.
Already at that time, Kelly's writing talent manifested itself: in his first year of university, he wrote a political science article about the conspiracy of John F. Kennedy to assassinate Fidel Castro in poetic form. And when I wrote my dissertation, I presented the Bill of Rights in the form of a play. And he attributed his own character to each amendment: “The First Amendment is a loud guy who will not be silent. Second Amendment guy is his weapon collection. Then the 10th Amendment, which is said to be left to the states to decide. So he was a guy with no self-esteem. Also at the university he was a member of the Princeton Triangle Club - a theater studio, from the walls of which many celebrities came out, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Russell Wright, Joshua Logan, Wayne Rogers, Clark Gesner, Jeff Moss, Nicholas Hammond and Brooke Shields.
Kelly graduated from Princeton in 1979 and then received his Juris Doctor degree from Boston University Law School, where he wrote a comedy play for Legal Follies, played by Boston University law students.
Despite his obvious writing talent, David still didn't understand what he wanted to do, so he started working at a Boston law firm. He was mainly involved in real estate and minor criminal cases.
Screenwriter career
In 1983, Kelly was drawn to writing a script again: for a joke, he sketched the plot of a legal thriller, which in 1986 got to the director Bob Clark, and in 1987 he directed the film "Heavy Fire" (1987) based on it, in which he played the main role Judd Nelson. The film failed, and the leading actor was even nominated for a Golden Raspberry for Worst Actor.
However, this did not upset the young screenwriter. He began to gradually move away from legal practice and move on to the path of writing, and he was pretty good at it. Gradually, his scripts became more and more professional, and he gained fame in the directing circles as a good writer.
Often, as a novice specialist, he had to write in co-authorship, and then, as people who know David say, all partners fled from him. He does not tolerate amendments to his plots, and pieces written by other people are mercilessly cut out if he does not like them.
Over time, he began writing scripts for series, and his skill increased from episode to episode.
The peculiarity of plotting from Kelly is the combination of episodes with several storylines. An episode can include a separate plot plus other plot moves that either began in a previous episode or will continue afterwards. And some will continue throughout the season. Because of this, viewers are rarely sure that this storyline is the main one or that it will appear a little later. And whether what appears to be a simple incident will turn into a plot point. It is these cunning and dexterous tricks of the screenwriter that attract the attention of viewers to the series - they seem to constantly solve a crossword puzzle with many intersecting lines.
In addition, Kelly supplements her stories with political and social issues. One of these methods is the conduct of provocative court cases. His scripts cover the entire spectrum of contemporary issues, from the culpability of tobacco companies and weapons manufacturers to those involved in suicides and murderers. Another way is to strengthen the social relationships of the character with serious problems such as feminism, sexuality, and divorce.
However, instead of moralizing, Kelly seeks to raise moral and ethical issues in a way that the audience thinks about them. And so that they themselves draw their own conclusions. However, he does not go into moralism and maxims, remembering that with the help of serials, people often rest and are distracted from their problems.
He writes in such a way that while entertaining, he touches the edge of society's problems. Whom it touches - he will think. And who is not - will ignore and will just follow the plot.
The best film based on the script by Kelly is considered the film "The Mystery of Alaska" (1999), and the best series are the following: "Big Little Lies" (2017-2019), "Boston Lawyers" (2004-2008), "Hard Monday" (2013- …), "Practice" (1997-2004), "Goliath" (2016- …).
Personal life
David Edward Kelly married actress Michelle Pfeiffer only once, they have two children. The future husband and wife met in 1993 at a party, and were married in the same year.
