Richard Friedenberg
Richard Friedenberg is an American screenwriter and film director. He wrote the screenplay for A River Runs Through It (1992), starring Brad Pitt, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, and the screenplay for the Hallmark Hall of Fame television film Promise (1986), starring James Garner and James Woods, for which he won an Emmy Award. He also wrote the screenplay for Dying Young starring Julia Roberts and wrote and directed The Education of Little Tree (1997).
Richard Friedenberg
- Name
- Richard Friedenberg
- Birthplace
- United States
- Occupation
- Screenwriter, film director
- Born
- 2000 · Westchester County.
- Fields
- film · television
- Education
- Lexington High School
- Honours
- Primetime Emmy Award
- Languages
- English
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wikidata · Q2149512 · wikipedia · Richard Friedenberg
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Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Not stated by the sources cited: nationality
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Richard Friedenberg • Birthplace — United States • Occupation — Screenwriter, film director
Documentary record
Richard Friedenberg is described as a director, screenwriter and actor in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
A River Runs Through It
A River Runs Through It
In the late 1980s, Robert Redford approached Friedenberg to adapt Norman Maclean's memoir A River Runs Through It. Upon reading the wispy book, Friedenberg lamented "it was not a movie." In his preface to the published screenplay, Friedenberg details his research into the facts of Maclean's life and that of his brother Paul (played in the movie by Brad Pitt). Friedenberg used the supplemental information to enhance the original narrative, which was deemed too spare for a feature film.
Unbroken: Path to Redemption
Unbroken: Path to Redemption
In 2018, Friedenberg wrote (with Ken Hixon) the screenplay for Unbroken: Path to Redemption, the faith-based follow-up to Angelina Jolie's secular-skewing Unbroken (2014). The sequel was adapted from the same source material as the original film but featured none of the main cast.
Independent feature films & TV movies
In the mid-1970s, Friedenberg directed The Adventures of Frontier Fremont and The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams for the Utah-based production company Schick Sunn Classic Pictures, famed for four-walling their films instead of distributing them conventionally. In 1978, he directed the TV movie The Deerslayer, an adaptation of the James Fenimore Cooper novel, for the same company. Notably, it was the screen debut of 20-year-old Madeleine Stowe, who later played the female lead in a more respectable Cooper adaptation, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans. Still working for Schick Sunn, Friedenberg directed the kitschy cult classic "documentary" The Bermuda Triangle, based on Charles Berlitz's 1974 book. In 1986, two years before the release of the strikingly similar Rain Man, Friedenberg wrote the Hallmark Hall of Fame entry Promise, in which a carefree salesman takes charge of his epileptic, schizophrenic brother in the wake of a parent's death. Friedenberg won an Emmy for his screenplay.
Documentary record
Recorded period of activity: 1992.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Richard Friedenberg, revision 1225523929 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Weinraud, Bernard. Movie With a Murky Background: The Man Who Wrote the Book. The New York Times. December 17, 1997.
- 2.Friedenberg, Richard. A River Runs Through It: Bringing a Classic to the Screen. Clark City Press. 5-16. 1992. 978-0944439500.
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Born at
1- Westchester CountyPlace
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 30 August 2026.
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