Nelson Gidding


Nelson Roosevelt Gidding was an American screenwriter specializing in film adaptation. A longtime collaboration with director Robert Wise began with Gidding's screenplay for I [Want to Live!], which earned him an Oscar nomination. His long-running course on screenwriting adaptions at the University of Southern California inspired screenwriters of the present generation, including David S. Goyer.
Gidding was born in New York City and attended school at Phillips Exeter Academy; as a young man he was friends with Norman Mailer. After graduating from Harvard University, he entered the Army Air Forces during World War II as the navigator on a Martin B-26 Marauder. His plane was shot down over Italy, but he survived; he spent 18 months as a POW but effected an escape. Returning from the war, in 1946 he published his only novel, End Over End, begun while captive in a German prison camp.
In 1949, Gidding married Hildegarde Colligan; together they had a son, Joshua Gidding, who today is a Seattle writer and college professor.
In Hollywood, Gidding entered work in television, writing for such series as Suspense and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and eventually moved into feature films like The Helen Morgan Story, Odds Against Tomorrow, The Haunting, Lost Command, The [Andromeda Strain (film)|The Andromeda Strain], and The Hindenburg.
After the death of his first wife on June 13, 1995, in 1998 Gidding married Chun-Ling Wang, a Chinese immigrant.
Gidding taught at USC until his death from congestive heart failure at a Santa Monica hospital in 2004.

Filmography

Film
YearTitleNotes
1953The TriangleSegment "American Duel"
1957The Helen Morgan Story
1958Onionhead
1958I Want to Live!
1959Odds Against Tomorrow
1962Lisa
1963The Haunting
1963Nine Hours to Rama
1966Lost Command
1970Skullduggery
1971The Andromeda Strain
1975The Hindenburg
1979Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
1987The Misfit Brigade
1991Journey of Honor
1993The Mummy lives

Television