Bill Kerby

Bill Kerby was a screenwriter for several Hollywood films and television series, most commonly known for writing or co-writing the 1970s films Hooper and The Rose.

Education and early career

Kerby received a B.A. from Kent State University in 1962 and an M.F.A. from UCLA; where he was a Louis B. Mayer grant winner and teaching assistant, graduating in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

He served in the United States Marine Corps, 1955–58, and was an actor and Welfare Investigator in New York City in the early 1960s. He also taught at Sherwood Oaks School, in Los Angeles, in the 1970s, and the Summer writers' workshop at the National Film and Television School of England from 1985 to 1990.^{[citation needed]}

Writing career

Kerby's list of credits as a writer for films include:

• Last American Hero, starring Jeff Bridges and Valerie Perrine, 20th Cent. Fox, 1973, uncredited.
• The Gravy Train, starring Stacy Keach, Frederic Forrest, and Margot Kidder, Columbia, 1974, co-written.
• Hooper, starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Brian Keith, and Jan Michael Vincent, Warner Bros., 1977, co-screenplay.
• Firepower, starring James Coburn. Sophia Loren, Eli Wallach, and O.J. Simpson, ITC, story by.
• The Rose, starring Bette Midler, Alan Bates, and Frederic Forrest, Columbia, 1978, Academy Award nominations for Midler, Forrest, Best Music, Best Sound, Co-screenplay, sole story by.
• Dead Men Can't Dance, starring Michael Biehn, Kathleen York, Adrian Paul, and R. Lee Ermey, Live Entertainment, 1997, co-screenplay.

He has also written for several television series, including:

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 2 episodes, produced by Walter Mirsch, teleplay, Method Actor, starring Martin Sheen, directed by Burt Reynolds.
• Steel Cowboy, movie-of-the-week, CBS, produced by Roger Gimbel for Tomorrow Entertainment, starring James Brolin, Jennifer Warren, Rip Torn, and Melanie Griffith, 1976.
• Dada is Death, CBS mini-series, Produced by Steve Krantz, directed by Jerry London, starring Julie Christie, Hugo Weaving, and Sarah Jessica Parker, 1989, best teleplay nomination from Australian Film Institute, written-by.
• Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee, for Turner Network Television and Fonda Films, directed by Frank Pierson, starring Irene Bedard, Joe Running Fox, Pato Hoffman, Tanto Cardinal, and August Schnelenberg, 1994, winner American Indian Film Festival, winner First Americans in the Arts, winner best TV film and screenplay by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, nominee Humanitas Award for best teleplay.
• Shake Rattle and Roll, CBS mini-series, part 2, co-teleplay.
• Little Richard, NBC movie, starring Leon, directed by Robert Townsend, 2000, co-written.
• On the Beach, Showtime, starring Armand Assante, Rachel Ward, and Blair Brown, directed by Russell Mulcahy. 2000, co-teleplay, mini-series nominated for Golden Globe, 2001.

He is currently working on an adaptation of The Rose for a stage musical.