Alvin Sargent (born on April 12, 1927 in Pennsylvania) is a multiple award-winning American screenwriter.
Sargent graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1945. As of 2006, he is one of 35 alums to be on Upper Darby High School's Wall of Fame
Sargent began writing for television in 1953 and through the 1960s he scripted episodes for various series such as Route 66, Ben Casey and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour amongst others. He collaborated on his first screenplay for a motion picture in 1966 and gained considerable recognition for his screenplay for the 1970 John Frankenheimer film, I Walk the Line and 1973s acclaimed Paper Moon for which he won the WGA Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He won the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay in 1978 for the film Julia and again in 1981 for Ordinary People. Most recently, he collaborated on the 2004 screenplay for Spider-Man 2 as well as Spider-Man 3 released in 2007.
He has been married to producer Laura Ziskin for the past 17 years. His brother was Herb Sargent (1923-2005).
Ex-brother-in-law of Geraldine Brooks (I) and Norma Crane.
Brother of Herbert Sargent (I).
Although he is an award-winning screenwriter, he is known to take his time writing his scripts. He took over a year to write the screenplay to Ordinary People (1980).
