Larry gelbart richard davis essay

In 2002, Gelbart was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Gelbart was diagnosed with cancer in June and died at his Beverly Hills home on September 11, 2009. His wife of 53 years, Pat Gelbart, said that after being married for so long, "we finished each other's sentences."

Gelbart was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Jewish immigrants Harry Gelbart, "a barber since his half of a childhood in Latvia ," and Frieda Sturner, who migrated to America from Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland. Marcia Gelbart Walkenstein was his sister. His family later moved to Los Angeles and he attended Fairfax High School.

On his relationship with actor Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Gelbart is reported to have said, "Never work with an Oscar-winner who is shorter than the statue". [1] He later retracted this statement, saying that it was just a joke. He collaborated with Burt Shevelove on the screenplay for the 1966 British film The Wrong Box.

Gelbart's best known screen work is perhaps the screenplay for 1982's Tootsie, which he co-wrote with Murray Schisgal. He was nominated for an Academy Award for that script, and also was Oscar-nominated for his adapted screenplay for 1977's Oh, God! starring John Denver and George Burns.