- Born
- Birth nameAaron Benjamin Sorkin
- Height6′ 1½″ (1.87 m)
- Aaron Sorkin grew up in Scarsdale, a suburb of New York City where he
was very involved in his high school drama and theater club. After
graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in
Theater, Sorkin intended to pursue a career in acting. It took him only
a short time to realize that his true love, and his true talent, lay in
writing. His first play, "Removing All Doubt", was not an immediate
success, but his second play, "Hidden in This Picture", debuted in 1988
at the West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theater Bar. A longer version of
"Hidden in This Picture", called "Making Movies", opened at the
Promenade Theater in 1990. Despite his youth and relative inexperience,
Sorkin was about to break into the spotlight. In 1989, he received the
prestigious Outer Critics Circle award as Outstanding American
Playwright for the stage version of
A Few Good Men (1992), which was
later nominated for a Golden Globe. The idea for the plot of "A Few
Good Men" came from a conversation with his older sister, Deborah.
Deborah was a Navy Judge Advocate General lawyer sent to Guantanamo Bay
on a case involving Marines accused of killing a fellow Marine. Deborah
told Aaron of the case and he spent the next year and a half writing a
Broadway play, which later led to the movie. Sorkin has gone on to
write for many movies and TV shows. Besides
A Few Good Men (1992), he has
written
The American President (1995)
and Malice (1993), as well as cooperating
on Enemy of the State (1998),
The Rock (1996) and
Excess Baggage (1997). In
addition, he was invited by
Steven Spielberg to "polish"
the script of
Schindler's List (1993).
Sorkin's TV credits include the Golden Globe-nominated
The West Wing (1999) and
Sports Night (1998).- IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Nonymous
- SpouseJulia Bingham(April 13, 1996 - 2005) (divorced, 1 child)
- ParentsClaire SorkinBernard R. Sorkin
- Appears as an extra in a bar scene in titles that he writes
- Rapid quick fire exchange of tightly-scripted dialogue for characters
- 'Walk and talks' (or 'pedeconferencing') where two characters have a conversation while walking together.
- His scripts often represent his liberal political views
- Long character-driven speeches representing a character's beliefs and actions
- Sorkin was brought on by Steven Spielberg to polish the script for Schindler's List (1993). It was the first time Sorkin acted as an uncredited script doctor.
- His sister, Deborah Sorkin, is a Navy Judge Advocate General, who worked with David Iglesias. She told Aaron about a real-life case she had worked on with David, which became the basis of A Few Good Men (1992). The character played by Demi Moore was based on his sister. David Iglesias was a Republican, who would later gain fame as one of the U.S. Attorneys fired by the George W. Bush administration.
- Describes his writing process as very active; he often stands and acts out every part. As a result of this process, he once accidentally broke his nose by lunging into the mirror while writing a fight scene.
- He did an uncredited polish on the Jerry Bruckheimer produced action thriller Enemy of the State (1998).
- Describes his creative process as long brainstorming sessions, followed by short writing periods.
- I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it
says, "You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but
those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your
mommy, I'm a white piece of paper, you wanna dance with me?" and I
really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like. - [speaking about freebased cocaine] I had found a drug I absolutely love and
that gave me a real break from a certain nervous tension that I kind of
carry with me moment to moment. - When things that are very mean-spirited and voyeuristic go on TV, I
think it's [like] bad crack in the schoolyard. - When I am setting out to do something, I don't consider the state of the culture. I can't possibly conceive of what the most people are going to like. Honest to God, I write something that I like, that I think my friends would like and that I think my father would like, and I keep my fingers crossed that enough other people are going to like it that I can earn a living.
- I am all for everyone having a voice, I just don't think everyone has earned the microphone. And that's what the Internet has done.
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