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Lawrence D. Cohen
Lawrence D. Cohen

Lawrence D. Cohen

Lawrence D. Cohen's first feature script was his adaptation of Stephen King's debut novel, Carrie (1976). His screenplay for the classic Brian de Palma film earned him an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America.

After beginning his career as a film/theater critic for a number of leading periodicals, he worked as an assistant to famed Broadway director-choreographer Michael Bennett on the latter's Tony Award-winning Twigs, as well as the musical Seesaw.

He discovered the screenplay and served as Production Executive on the 1975 Oscar-winning Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and co-scripted Martin Scorsese’s documentary, Italianamerican.

Continuing his ongoing relationship with Stephen King in 1980, he wrote the 4-hour teleplay of It, which USA Today called “the scariest movie ever made for TV.” It and Cohen’s subsequent adaptation of King's The Tommyknockers (1993) became two of the network's highest-rated miniseries. In 2007, he was reunited with the Master of Horror with his adaptation of The End of the Whole Mess for TNT's Nightmares & Dreamscapes anthology series. The Writers Guild of America nominated the script as Best Drama Episode.

Other films include Ghost Story, based on Peter Straub's bestseller. The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films nominated it for its Saturn Award as Best Horror Film. For ABC, he wrote the 3-hour teleplay adaptation for Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific (2001), and served as the project's executive producer with partner Michael Gore.

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