Carole Eastman
Carole Eastman, born on February 19, 1934, in Glendale, California, was a multifaceted talent known for her contributions to film and theater as a screenwriter and actress. With a background steeped in the performing arts, she initially pursued ballet but shifted her focus after an injury curtailed her dancing aspirations. Transitioning into modeling, Eastman appeared in prominent fashion magazines and made a brief foray into acting, participating in theater productions in Los Angeles.
Her writing career took off when she was asked to pen the screenplay for the cult classic *The Shooting*, directed by her friend Monte Hellman. Eastman's most notable work, *Five Easy Pieces*, earned her an Academy Award nomination and is celebrated for its innovative storytelling and memorable dialogue. She wrote under the pseudonym Adrien Joyce for several projects and later used her real name for films like *Puzzle of a Downfall Child* and *Man Trouble*.
Despite a talented career, Eastman's later works did not achieve the same acclaim as her earlier successes. She passed away on February 13, 2004, after a prolonged illness, leaving behind a legacy marked by her unique perspective on human experiences and relationships, as noted by her friends and collaborators.
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Carole Eastman
Writer
- Born: February 19, 1934
- Birthplace: Glendale, California
- Died: February 13, 2004
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Biography
Carole Joyce Eastman was born on February 19, 1934, in Glendale, California. Her father worked as a grip at Warner Brothers studios, her mother was a secretary for Bing Crosby, and an uncle was a film cameraman. While attending Hollywood High School, Eastman studied ballet with Eugene Loring, a well-known choreographer. Feeling she had found her true calling, Eastman devoted all her energies to ballet and was expelled from school for cutting classes in favor of dance. A year after high school, however, a broken foot ended her dreams of becoming a ballerina.
The tall, willowy Eastman, described by her friend screenwriter Robert Towne as having a head “shaped like a gorgeous tulip on a long stalk,” then turned to modeling, appearing in Vogue and other well-known fashion magazines. She appeared briefly as a dancer in director Stanley Donen’s 1957 fashion-industry musical Funny Face, for which Loring was a choreographer. She then turned to acting, performing in little theater productions in Los Angeles. Her appearance in a play by her brother, Charles, who later became a screenwriter, earned her an agent, and she landed roles on such early- 1960’s television series as Checkmate and The Untouchables.
When her friend Monte Hellman was hired by producer Roger Corman to direct a film, Hellman asked Eastman to write the screenplay for The Shooting. This low-budget, offbeat Western has developed a reputation as a cult film and features a young Jack Nicholson, whom Eastman had befriended during Jeff Corey’s legendary acting classes. Eastman used the pseudonym Adrien Joyce, as she would on her next three film credits.
Her next film, Five Easy Pieces, starring Nicholson and directed by Bob Rafelson, was her greatest achievement. Five Easy Pieces, an examination of a pianist’s estrangement from his family and his rebellion against middle-class conventions, was one of the handful of revolutionary films of the 1970’s that helped Hollywood develop a new freedom of expression. It features memorable dialogue such as “I faked a little Chopin. You faked a big response.” Earning Eastman an Academy Award nomination, Five Easy Pieces has one of the most famous scenes in American film history, in which Nicholson’s character goes to great lengths to order an item not on the menu at a roadside restaurant.
Eastman’s other screenplays were not as successful. She used her modeling experience as the basis of Puzzle of a Downfall Child, a once-famous model’s self-conscious look at her life. In the clumsy comedy The Fortune, Nicholson and Warren Beatty play bumbling con men in the 1920’s. In Man Trouble, for which Eastman used her real name, Nicholson plays a guard dog trainer who becomes involved with a client. Her final credit was the made-for- television political comedy Running Mates.
Eastman died on February 13, 2004, after suffering from Epstein-Barr virus for six years. According to Nicholson, she “had an absolutely great vision about the foibles of people and a very idiosyncratic sense of humor.”