Eric Roth
March 22, 1945
Screenwriter
1970–present
5, including Vanessa
Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump (1994)
Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement (2012)
Early life and education[edit]
Roth was born in New York City, New York, into a Jewish family, the son of Miriam "Mimi", a teacher, studio executive, and radio writer, and Leon Roth, a university teacher and film producer.[2][3] He grew up in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in New York.[4] He grew up boxing and would credit some of his later successes to habits learned from the sport.[4]
Roth went to college at the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated in 1966.[5] He later attended UCLA Film School as part of the class of 1973.
Career[edit]
Roth won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump. He is known for writing his scripts in a DOS program without Internet access, as well as distributing the scripts only in hard copy formats.[3][6][7] He followed his Academy Award win by co-writing screenplays for several Oscar-nominated films, including The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and A Star Is Born. While writing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, he lost both of his parents, and as a result views the film as "my most personal movie."[4][8][9]
Personal life[edit]
Roth lives in Santa Monica, California.[10] He has five children, including documentary filmmaker Vanessa Roth, and filmmakers Geoffrey Roth and Alec Roth; and six grandchildren.
Roth was one of the investors defrauded by Bernard Madoff in a Ponzi Scheme via Stanley Chais.[11][12] He stated that his losses were heavy and he has lost his retirement money, although the full extent is unknown. As a result of the fraud and the associated losses, Roth sued the estate of Chais, who died on September 26, 2010.