David Rabe
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David William Rabe (born March 10, 1940 in Dubuque, Iowa) is an American playwright and screenwriter.
He is best known for his loose trilogy of plays drawing on his experiences as an Army draftee in Vietnam, Sticks and Bones (1969), the Tony Award-winning The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1971), and Streamers (1976).
He has also written Hurlyburly (both the play and the screenplay for the film version), and the screenplays for the Vietnam War drama Casualties of War (1989) and the film adaptation of John Grisham's The Firm (1993).
Rabe was the child of William Rabe, a high-school teacher turned meat packer, and his wife Ruth, a department store employee. He attended Roman Catholic schools in Dubuque, and graduated from Loras College, a small Catholic liberal-arts college located there.
He began graduate studies in theater at Villanova University, but dropped out and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1965. He served until 1967, spending his last eleven months of service in Vietnam.
After leaving the service, Rabe returned to Villanova, studying writing and earning an M.A. in 1968. During this time, he began work on the play Sticks and Bones, in which the family represents the ugly underbelly of the Nelson family when they are faced with their hopeless son David returning home from Vietnam as a blinded vet.
Rabe has been married to actress Jill Clayburgh since 1979. They have two children, one of whom is actress Lily Rabe.
Works
Plays
- Sticks and Bones (1971)
- Tony Award winner for Best Play
Screenplays
- I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1983)
- Streamers (1983)
- Casualties of War (1989)
- The Firm (1993)
- Hurlyburly (1998)
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