Love Story Author Dies at 72
Erich Segal, the Ivy League professor who attained mainstream fame and made millions sob as writer of the novel and movie ``Love Story,'' has died of a heart attack, The Associated Press reported, quoting his daughter. He was 72.
Francesca Segal said her father died Sunday at his home in London. She said he had suffered from Parkinson's disease ― a neurological condition that affects movement ― for 25 years. His funeral was held in London Tuesday, she said.
Segal was a Yale classics professor and screenplay writer when he turned a proposed movie about two college students ― preppy Oliver and smart-mouthed Jenny ― into a novel. Published in 1970, ``Love Story'' was a weeper about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer. It was a million seller guaranteed to make readers cry and critics scream.
A much bigger audience caught up with the film version, which starred Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw. Directed by Arthur Hiller, with a plaintive, Henry Mancini-composed theme song that wouldn't quit, ``Love Story'' gained seven Oscar nominations ― including one for Segal for writing the screenplay, as well as for best picture, best director and best actor and actress. It won one Oscar, for best music.
Segal also wrote a sequel, ``Oliver's Story,'' published in 1977, and made into a film, with O'Neal again in the lead male role. Segal would later say that Oliver was based in part on a couple of Harvard undergraduates who later became quite well known: Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones.
A rabbi's son, born in New York City in 1937, Segal also had a long, distinguished academic career in classics, gaining a doctorate at Harvard and teaching at Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth while writing era-defining screenplays and novels. He worked on surreal popular works like the 1968 screenplay to the animated Beatles film ``Yellow Submarine'' while also publishing works on Greek tragedy, Latin poetry and ancient athletics.
He is survived by his wife, Karen James, and daughters Francesca, 29, and Miranda, 20.
`러브스토리' 작가 에릭 시걸 타계
`러브스토리' 작가 에릭 시걸이 72세를 일기로 심장마비로 사망했다고 AP통신이 보도했다.
에릭 시걸의 딸 프란체스카는 에릭 시걸이 25년 동안 파킨슨병을 앓다가 17일 런던에서 타계했다고 밝혔다. 장례식은 19일 런던에서 거행됐다.
에릭 시걸은 예일 대학교 고전문학 교수로 재직시절 소설 '러브 스토리'를 발표했다. '러브스토리'는 대학생인 젊은 남녀가 뜨거운 사랑을 하지만 여주인공이 암으로 세상을 마감한다는 슬픈 이야기를 담고 있다. '러브 스토리'는 배우 라이언 오닐과 알리 맥그로우 주연으로 1970년 영화로 제작돼 전세계적으로 큰 인기를 누렸다.
시걸은 또한 1977년 속편인 `올리버 스토리'를 출간하기도 했는데, 이 작품은 오닐 주연으로 다시 영화화됐다. 그는 후에 올리버의 모델로 알 고어 전 부통령을 지적했다.
1937년 뉴욕에서 랍비의 아들로 태어난 시걸은 고전의 대가로 하버드에서 박사학위를 받고, 예일, 프린스턴, 다트머스 등에서 강의를 하는 틈틈이 각본과 소설을 썼다.
유족으로는 아내 카렌 제임스와 프란체스카 (29), 미란다 (20) 두 딸이 있다.