E.T. Writer

Background:

Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Melissa Mathison garnered critical acclaim in the early 1980s for writing the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's landmark children's fantasy, "E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982). She has since worked as writer for such films as "The Escape Artist" (1982), "Twilight Zone: The Movie" (1983), "The Indian in the Cupboard" (1995), and "Kundun" (1997).

This 5' 11" talented screenwriter was the second wife of actor Harrison Ford, with whom she has two children. They were married from 1983 to 2004.

Hollywood Hills Girl

Childhood and Family:

Daughter of a journalist father and part-time publicist mother, Melissa Marie Mathison was born on June 3, 1950 in Los Angeles, California. She was raised in the Hollywood Hills, where producer-writer-director Francis Ford Coppola was a family friend. As a youth, she worked at one time for Coppola as his children's baby-sitter before becoming his personal assistant. She also had relationship around the time of the making of "Apocalypse Now."

Mathison graduated from Providence High School in Burbank, California. She then studied political science at University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California.

On March 14, 1983, in Los Angeles, Mathison married actor Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942). They have a son, Malcolm C Ford (born on March 10, 1987), and daughter, Georgia Ford (born on June 30, 1990). They announced separation in November 2000, but reportedly reconciled in March 2001. The pair finally divorced on January 6, 2004.

Kundun

Career:

Started out as a stringer for TIME magazine, where her father was a friend of a bureau chief, Melissa Mathison, who previously had worked as family friend Francis Ford Coppola's children's baby-sitter, took a leave from pursuing a degree in political science at the University of California at Berkeley to work as Coppola's assistant on "The Godfather, Part II" (1974).

Later in 1979, she was credited as "executive assistant" on Coppola's "Apocolypse Now." That same year, at the urging of Coppola, she made feature screen-writing debut, co-scripted (with Jeanne Rosenberg and William D. Wittliff) "The Black Stallion," which was also executive produced by Coppola.

In the early 1980s, while traveling with then rising star boyfriend Harrison Ford on location for the shoot of Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Mathison was asked by Spielberg to write a screenplay about a little alien stranded on Earth. She wrote the first draft in eight weeks and the result was Spielberg's landmark children's fantasy, "E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982).

Mathison, who was also credited as associate producer in the film, received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, a BAFTA Film Award nomination for Best Screenplay, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture. She also won Saturn Award's Best Writing, WGA (Writers Guild of America)'s Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association's New Generation Award.

Asked about a possible "E.T." sequel, Mathison said, “We agreed, as we were making the movie, that we would never make a sequel. So neither of us have felt the need to ask the other one if they'd like to change their mind. The sequel thing gets insane doesn't it? In my mind it was a perfect little movie and why would you want to horse around with it?”

On whether she feels the legacy of the movie, Mathison admitted, “Definitely. I loved it but I haven't seen it in a while. It still stands out twenty years later. It's a wonderful little movie. It was a powerful movie, and it's hard to know exactly where that power came from.”

Meanwhile, Mathison co-scripted (with Stephen Zito) the screenplay for "The Escape Artist" (1982), a poorly received Coppola production. And following her marriage to Ford the March after "E.T." opened, Mathison spent most of the next decade or so as a homemaker.

Entering the 1990s, Mathison made her TV writing debut in "Son of the Morning Star," an ABC miniseries biopic about General George Custer starring Gary Cole. In the mid of the decade, she returned to screen-writing, scripted "The Indian in the Cupboard" (1995), a film adaptation of Lynne Reid Banks' novel directed by Frank Oz. Two years later, she wrote Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated biopic "Kundun" (1997), which based on the life and writings of the Dalai Lama, the exiled political and spiritual leader of Tibet.

On how she approached the writing of the script of "Kundun" (1997), Mathison revealed, “I buried myself in research, and I loved it. I had to learn about the people, the religion, the history and it was all quite fantastic and tantalising. I read everything I could find on Tibet and this went on for a couple of years. So that was the basis. I also did interviews with lots of people, including His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.”

About what made she goes to Scorsese, Mathison explained, “I know that he has a real broad and sincere interest in world religions and cultures. So I thought he'd be interested in this idea and I also know that destiny is important to him and I thought he would understand the intricacies of the male society, because most of his movies are about that. I just felt like it actually touched on a lot of the themes of his movies, which are all about staying true to a code, whether or not it's one that we would adopt. I thought that anyone who can understand the birthplace of violence, the way he does, should also be able to understand the birthplace of non-violence. And I think he did. He shows it in a very subtle but powerful way.”

Awards:

• Saturn: Best Writing, "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," 1993

• WGA (Writers Guild of America): Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen, "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," 1983

• Los Angeles Film Critics Association: New Generation Award, 1982