Biography

Charlie was born April 22nd, 1951 in Salt Lake City. His father died when he was 10 and he was raised by his single mother in New York City where he attended New York parochial schools. He spent his high school years at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, England. His classmates there included director Charles Sturridge and actor Edward Duke. He studied theater at the University of Connecticut and received a Schubert Fellowship to do graduate work in playwriting at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. While there, his plays were acted by students including Holly Hunter. He returned to New York City where he worked as a playwright and had plays produced at La Mama ETC, Primary Stages, Playwrights Horizons, The Actors Theater of Louisville and The Edinburgh Festival. During these lean years he supported himself as a bookseller, bartender and paper hanger. In 1978 he was brought to Los Angeles by Columbia Pictures as part of a writers program developed to counter bad publicity the studio garnered from the David Begelman/Cliff Robertson fiasco. Charlie's first produced movie, based on a play he'd written while at CMU, was "Paternity" starring Burt Reynolds and directed by David Steinberg. In the 1980s and 1990s he had a dozen other movies produced including "Blame It On Rio" directed by Stanley Donen, and he directed two of his own: "Passed Away" with Bob Hoskins and "Music From Another Room" with Jude Law and Brenda Blethyn. He's also worked with the directors Robert Mulligan and Bruce Beresford. Charlie's been fired - justifiably without credit - from several of the most successful films of all time and he's doctored over forty other movies. He's taught screenwriting at USC. It was in his graduate class at USC that Amanda Silver wrote "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle." His most recent movie "My One and Only" with Renee Zellweger was directed by Richard Loncraine. Charlie had a story published in "I Thought My Father Was God," edited by Paul Auster. His short play "Striking Out The Babe" has been produced at numerous regional theaters and schools. He lives in California and Connecticut.