R.I.P. Lorenzo Semple Jr.

March 28, 2014 2:21 PM

It would be hard to find two more disparate and distinctive genres than the playful TV adventure shows of the 1960's and the paranoid conspiracy thrillers of the 1970's. Yet they both owe a great deal to the same man: Screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., who not only had a hand in the "Batman" TV show but also penned "The Parallax View" and "Three Days of the Condor", died today at the age of 91.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (18 comments total)

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posted by Smart Dalek at 3:08 PM on March 28, 2014

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posted by localroger at 3:18 PM on March 28, 2014

Three Days of the Condor is pretty brilliant too.

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posted by davros42 at 3:40 PM on March 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

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Or maybe !
posted by fight or flight at 3:43 PM on March 28, 2014

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posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:36 PM on March 28, 2014

His Reel Geezers Youtube series with Marcia Nasatir is really captivating, great movie reviews with keen insights. He was an immensely talented and intelligent fellow. RIP.

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posted by dbiedny at 5:00 PM on March 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

It feels ever-so-nerdly to talk about rating episodes of 1960s Batman, but the Semple-written episodes did have a certain deadpan verve.
posted by Flexagon at 6:11 PM on March 28, 2014

It was a tossup between Three Days of the Condor and The Conversation as which movie was Dad's favorite.

I hated 3DotC until I was in my thirties.

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posted by Sphinx at 6:14 PM on March 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

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He's the father of Maria Semple, who is not-officially-married to George Meyer.
posted by clockzero at 6:23 PM on March 28, 2014

Two of my favorite character names are in that Batman movie: Commodore Schmidlapp and Admiral Fangschliester.
posted by putzface_dickman at 7:17 PM on March 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

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posted by How the runs scored at 7:33 PM on March 28, 2014

My hero.
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posted by Superfrankenstein at 8:02 PM on March 28, 2014

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posted by bryon at 10:17 PM on March 28, 2014

A great, great celebrator of the human spirit. Onward my brave Hawkmen!
posted by specialbrew at 1:54 AM on March 29, 2014

Sad to hear this. His was a name I saw regularly in the credits of a lot of my faves.

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posted by Thorzdad at 7:25 AM on March 29, 2014

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posted by Mezentian at 5:42 PM on March 29, 2014

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A good innings, sir.
posted by On the Corner at 12:35 AM on March 31, 2014

Semple also did the script for Pretty Poison, in which Tuesday Weld appears with Tony Perkins.

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posted by jonp72 at 11:46 AM on March 31, 2014