2010 Award Recipient

Veteranscreenwriter and past Writers Guild of America West Vice President Carl Gottlieb is set to receive the WGAW’s 2010 Morgan Cox Award to recognize his longtime service to the Guild. Gottlieb, along with other WGAW honorary award recipients, will be feted at the 2010 Writers Guild Awards’ West Coast ceremony on Saturday, February 20, 2010.

“Beyond being a talented writer and a very, very funny man, Carl Gottlieb personifies what it means to be a truly active, engaged Writers Guild member. This honorary service award salutes Carl’s tireless efforts and countless hours spent in service to the Guild over the past three decades to help empower his fellow writers, improve their working conditions, and raise writers’ profile within the industry,” said WGAW President John Wells.

Perhaps best known for co-writing the screenplay for the 1975 box-office blockbuster Jaws (screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, based upon the novel by Benchley), for which he shared Golden Globe and Writers Guild Award nominations, Gottlieb has been a WGAW member since 1968. Over the years, he has served on the WGAW Board of Directors for numerous terms (1983-91, 1996-2002), as well as serving as the WGAW’s Vice President for several terms (1991-95, again in 2004-05) and serving as the chair of the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) from 2005 through 2009.

In addition, the ever-active Gottlieb has served on numerous Writers Guild committees over the years, including: Awards Show (1992), Board Nominating (2005), CAC Steering (1991-95), East/West Study (1992-93), Grievance and Disciplinary Screening (1988-89), Negotiating Committee Co-Chair: 1987-88; Negotiating Committee member: 1997-98, 2007-08; President’s Committee on the Professional Status of Writers (1989-2005), Standing Committee on Negotiations (1989-1993), Waiver (1987-2009), Working Rule #8 and #23 (1987-89), and Writers Workshop 1982-89. Gottlieb also sat on the Writers Guild Foundation Board of Directors for a decade (1988-1997).

Gottlieb’s other screenwriting credits include subsequent hit movies in the popular Jaws film franchise, including Jaws 2 (written by Gottlieb and Howard Sackler) and Jaws 3-D (screenplay by Richard Matheson and Gottlieb, story by Guerdon Trueblood), as well as features Which Way is Up? (screenplay by Gottlieb & Cecil Brown), The Jerk (screenplay by Steve Martin, Gottlieb, and Michael Elias; story by Martin & Gottlieb), Dr. Detroit (screenplay by Gottlieb and Robert Boris and Bruce Jay Friedman; story by Friedman), and cult comedy Caveman (written by Rudy Deluca and Gottlieb), which he also directed. Gottlieb’s numerous television co-writing credits earlier in his career include The Odd Couple, The Bob Newhart Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (for which he shared an Emmy in 1969 for Variety-Music Program), and several George Burns and Flip Wilson TV specials (sharing another WGA nomination for Comedy/Variety Special in 1975.)

A longtime writers’ advocate, Gottlieb has also been called as an Expert Witness, consulting and testifying in cases involving writers’ issues in state and federal jurisdictions, and has lobbied and testified in both state and national legislatures, and at the White House.

As an educator, Gottlieb has been on the faculty at Columbia University in New York (Adjunct Professor, Film Division, School of the Arts), at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, where he taught advanced screen writing; he was a Visiting Artist at the University of Miami's School of Communications and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema & Television. He has taught and lectured at various seminars and conferences here and abroad, including the prestigious Beaune Film Forum and Equinoxe Writers Workshops in France, in 2000 and 2001, and served on the Franco-American Cultural Fund’s Board of Directors.

As an author, Gottlieb’s appeared on the New York Times and other national bestseller lists. His book, The Jaws Log, was reissued in 2005 by Newmarket Press in a special 30th Anniversary hardcover edition and remains the most popular book about the making of a motion picture ever written, with over two million copies sold after 17 printings. Gottlieb also co-authored Long Time Gone, The Autobiography of David Crosby with singer Crosby in 1989. Its sequel, Since Then, was published by G.P. Putnam in 2006.

The Morgan Cox Award honors that WGAW member whose vital ideas, continuing efforts, and personal sacrifice best exemplify the ideal of service to the Guild. Previous recipients include Mel Shavelson, George Kirgo, Del Reisman, Frank Pierson, Daryl G. Nickens, Don M. Mankiewicz, and most recently, Larry DiTillio. The late Cox devoted his professional life to serving the Guild, working to ensure television writers were included under WGA jurisdiction.