Warren Skaaren

Warren Skaaren
Born	(1946-03-09)March 9, 1946 Rochester, Minnesota, United States
Died	December 28, 1990(1990-12-28) (aged 44) Austin, Texas, United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Rice University
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, film producer

Warren Skaaren (March 9, 1946 – December 28, 1990) was an American screenwriter and film producer.

Career

Skaaren was appointed by Governor Preston Smith as executive director of the newly formed Texas Film Commission on December 9, 1970. His first success was getting the film The Getaway (1972) shot in Texas. Skaaren later formed FPS Inc., a television and film productions services company in Dallas. The company handled location shooting for the television series Dallas and worked on the film Tender Mercies (1983). Meanwhile, he was pivotal behind the distribution of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), to which he claimed credit for crafting the film's title. The success of the film enabled Skaaren to leave the Film Commission and begin his career in the film industry.

In 1983, Skaaren was approached by a Texas businessman to write a script about the Gurkhas, who were Nepalese soldiers serving in the British Army. He spent one year writing the spec script titled Of East and West. Although the script was never produced, it gained Skaaren an agent, Mike Simpson at the William Morris Agency, and attracted then-Paramount Pictures executive Dawn Steel's attention, who hired Skaaren to rewrite the screenplay of Fire with Fire (1986). He was later hired to rewrite Top Gun (1986) and credited as an associate producer having compiled the last ten drafts. Among his revisions were changing Kelly McGillis's character from being a gymnast into a military instructor.

Skaaren later wrote Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Beetlejuice (1988), and Batman (1989). At the time of his death, he had completed a script titled Beetlejuice in Love.

Personal life

Skaaren was a native of Rochester, Minnesota. He graduated from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1969. He served as the Student Association President from 1968–1969 and was a member of Hanszen College. He moved to Austin, Texas and began working at the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

He married Helen Griffin on March 7, 1969. He and his wife fostered seven children, and he helped found the Travis County Foster Parents Association. He also served on the board of directors of the Deborah Hay Dance Company. In 1986, he established a private charitable trust, the Laurel Foundation, and was involved with the East West Center, a macrobiotic dietary provider.

He died of bone cancer on December 28, 1990. He was 44 years old.

Legacy

Skaaren's archive resides at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 2021, it was reported that Rochester Community and Technical College (of which Skaaren was an alumnus) had received a $75,000 gift from Skaaren's trust fund, which funded scholarships for students in need of financial aid.

Filmography

• Fire with Fire (1986) - with Bill Phillips, Paul Boorstin and Susan Boorstin
• Top Gun (1986) - uncredited
• Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) - with Larry Ferguson
• Beetlejuice (1988) - with Michael McDowell
• Batman (1989) - with Sam Hamm

Further reading

• Macor, Alison (2017). Rewrite Man: The Life and Career of Screenwriter Warren Skaaren. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-75945-9. JSTOR 10.7560/2759459.

External links

• Warren Skaaren at IMDb