Bruce Joel Rubin

Bruce Joel Rubin (b. March 10 1943, Detroit, Michigan) is a screenwriter best known for the supernatural romance, "Ghost" for which he won the 1991 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

His other writing credits include: "Jacob's Ladder", "Deep Impact", "Brainstorm", "Deadly Friend (which he adapted from the novel Friend" by "Diana Henstall"), "Sleeping with the Enemy", "My Life" (which he also directed), "Stuart Little 2" and "The Last Mimzy".

Rubin is a 1961 graduate of Detroit's Mumford High School; he is sometimes credited as Derek Saunders or simply Bruce Rubin. He is also interested in spirituality and teaches meditation.

He and his wife, Blanche, split their time between Los Angeles and New York. They have two sons, Joshua and Ari - both moderately successful screenwriters.

Rubin was born on March 10, 1943, in Detroit, MI. He spent time traveling to Greece, India, Tibet, and Nepal, where he explored religion and culture. He was married to Blanche Mallins, and returned to the Midwest to earn his graduate degree before relocating to Los Angeles. His film credits date back to 1970, when he co-directed (with Brian De Palma and Richard Schechner) a pseudo-documentary of a series of stage performances entitled "Dionysus". He wrote the stories for both "Brainstorm" (1983), and director Wes Craven's "Deadly Friend" (1986).

Twenty years after his first film credit, he would grace the world with two piercingly brilliant screenplays, both in 1990. One of these films was the artistically acclaimed "Jacob's Ladder", directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Tim Robbins. The story involves a young Vietnam vet, formerly victimized by mysterious substance experiments, and the film itself experiments with viewer psyche in the way reality gets distorted, confused, and essentially made indecipherable. The protagonist is also plagued by memories of a lost child and a failed marriage, incorporating Rubin's classic themes of death and life events.

"Ghost", the devastating love story starring Patrick Swayze, Whoopi Goldberg, and Demi Moore, earned Rubin an Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1990. This film, a box-office smash, dealt with the interaction between real life and the supernatural, as well as the notions of lingering feelings and energy after death. Both a mystery-thriller and a romantic drama, the film was well received by an extremely wide audience range, and has earned its rank amongst the modern classics. In 1991, Rubin's script for "Deceived" was made into an action-thriller starring Goldie Hawn. Two years later, he wrote and directed "My Life", depicting a man's memoirs as he collected them for the child his wife was still carrying. The film starred Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman. Rubin's Hollywood film credits continued with a writing credit alongside Michael Tolkin on "Deep Impact" in 1998. He also wrote the screenplay for the film "Stuart Little 2" (2002), based on the classic children's story by E.B. White. ~ Sarah Sloboda, All Movie Guide

External links

*imdb name|id=0748022|name=Bruce Joel Rubin
* [http://movies.nytimes.com/person/109197/Bruce-Joel-Rubin/biography New York Times biography]