Name Everett Roche Role Screenwriter | Children Summer DeRoche Books Snapshot | |
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Died April 1, 2014, Melbourne, Australia Nominations AACTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Movies Razorback, Long Weekend, Roadgames, Patrick, Harlequin Similar People Richard Franklin, Jamie Blanks, Colin Eggleston, Antony I Ginnane, Anthony Waller | ||
Harlequin (1980)
Everett De Roche (July 12, 1946 - April 2, 2014) was an American born screenwriter who has worked extensively in Australian film and TV. He was best known for his work in the thriller and horror genre, with such credits as Long Weekend, Patrick and Road Games.
Contents
Career
De Roche was born in Lincoln Maine and moved to San Diego with his family when he was six. De Roche emigrated to Australia with his wife when he was 22 in 1968 and originally worked as a journalist for the Queensland Health Education Council.
He wanted to be a writer and wrote a spec script for Division Four. Nine months later he received a telegram inviting him to write for the show. From 1970-74 he was a staff writer at Crawford Productions mainly working on police shows, then he freelanced.
In the late 70s and early 80s he established himself as the leading screenwriter of thrillers in Australia.
He often worked with director Richard Franklin who said of him:
Everett is a very inspirational writer... Everett gives one too much of everything and you don’t always know what to use. You start editing down and you end up with words and single lines of dialogue that were once scenes. That is maybe how this problem, as you see it, comes about. But that only has to do with Everett’s extraordinarily fertile imagination and his writing speed.
Death
De Roche battled cancer for the last three years of his life and died of the disease in 2014. He was survived by his wife, six daughters and several grandchildren.
Select Credits
Television
Unmade Projects
Accolades
In 2014, Everett DeRoche was posthumously awarded the Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. During his career he also received nominations for two AFI Awards; one for Best Adapted Screenplay for Razorback and one for Best Original Screenplay for Patrick. He didn't win either one of those awards.