Michael Cristofer

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Birthday:

22 January 1945, Trenton, New Jersey, USA

Michael Cristofer was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and an Antoinette Perry "Tony" Award for the Broadway production of his play, The Shadow Box. Other plays include Breaking Up (Primary Stages), ICE, (Manhattan Theatre Club); Black Angel, (Circle Repertory Company); The Lady and the Clarinet starring Stockard Channing, and Amazing Grace starring Marsha Mason which received the American Theater Critics Award for best American play. Mr. Cristofer's film work includes the screenplays for The Shadow Box directed by Paul Newman (Golden Globe Award, Emmy nomination), Falling In Love, with Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro, The Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson, The Bonfire of the Vanities directed by Brian DePalma,, Breaking Up starring Russell Crowe and Salma Hayek, Georgia O'Keeffe (Writers Guild Award) with Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons and Casanova starring Heath Ledger. His directing credits include Gia, for HBO Pictures starring Angelina Jolie, Mercedes Ruehl and Faye Dunaway which was nominated for 5 Emmies and for which he won a Director's Guild Award. He next directed Body Shots for New Line Cinema and Original Sin starring Antonio Banderas. For eight years he worked as co-artistic director of River Arts Repertory in Woodstock, N.Y., where he wrote stage adaptations of the films Love Me Or Leave Me and the legendary Casablanca, directed Joanne Woodward in his own adaptation of Ibsen's Ghosts and produced the American premier of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women - a production which later moved to Off-Broadway. His most recent works for the theater are in workshop at the Actor's Studio where he is a member. After a fifteen year hiatus, Mr. Cristofer has returned to his acting career appearing in Romeo and Juliet (NY Shakespeare Festival), Trumpery by Peter Parnell, Three Sisters (Williamstown Theater), Body of Water with Christine Lahti, and the acclaimed Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge with Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson. He appeared as the infamous Truxton Spangler in the AMC series Rubicon and in The Other Woman with Natalie Portman. He created the role of Gus in Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual... at the Public Theater and starred in Stephen Belber's Don't Go Gentle at MCC Theater. He was recently seen in the NBC series, Smash, American Horror Story and Showtime's Ray Donovan. Show less «

[on his libretto for the opera 'Champion'] I saw in Emile [Griffith]'s life the story of a man who was fighting to reconcile who he was insi...Show more »

[on his libretto for the opera 'Champion'] I saw in Emile [Griffith]'s life the story of a man who was fighting to reconcile who he was inside with who he was in the outside world. He was a young man who wanted to make hats and sing and play baseball and instead became a famous and successful prize fighter. He was confused about his sexual identity and that confusion led to violence. That violence led to the death of another man. Show less «