Gregory Allen Howard dies: ‘Remember the Titans’ writer was 70

NEW YORK — Screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard, who skillfully tailored tales of historic Black figures in “Remember the Titans” starring Denzel Washington, “Ali” with Will Smith and “Harriet” with Cynthia Erivo, has died. He was 70.

Howard died Friday at his dwelling in Miami after a short sickness, in response to an announcement from publicist Jeff Sanderson.

Howard was the first Black screenwriter to put in writing a drama that made $100 million at the field workplace when “Titans” crossed that milestone in 2000. It was a few real-life Black coach coming right into a newly built-in Virginia college and serving to lead their soccer workforce to victory. It had the iconic line: “I don’t care if you like each other or not. But you will respect each other.”

Howard mentioned he shopped the story round Hollywood with no success. So he took an opportunity and wrote the screenplay himself. ″They didn’t anticipate it to make a lot cash, however it turned a monster, making $100 million,” he mentioned. “It made my career,” he advised the Times-Herald of Vallejo, California, in 2009. The film made the Associated Press’ list of the best 25 sports movies ever made.

Howard adopted up “Remember the Titans” with “Ali,” the 2002 Michael Mann-directed biopic of Muhammad Ali. Smith famously bulked as much as play Ali and was nominated for a finest actor Oscar.

Howard additionally produced and co-wrote 2019′s “Harriet,” about abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Erivo lead a forged, that included Leslie Odom Jr., Clarke Peters and Joe Alwyn.

“I got into this business to write about the complexity of the Black man. I wanted to write about Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Marcus Harvey. I think it takes a Black man to write about Black men,” he advised the Times-Herald.

Born in Virginia, his household moved usually on account of his stepfather’s profession in the Navy. After attending Princeton University, graduating with a level in American historical past, Howard briefly labored at Merrill Lynch on Wall Street earlier than shifting to Los Angeles in his mid-20s to pursue a writing profession.

He wrote for TV and penned the play “Tinseltown Trilogy,” which centered on three males in Los Angeles over Christmastime as their tales interconnect and inform one another.

Howard additionally wrote “The Harlem Renaissance,” a restricted sequence for HBO, “Misty,” the story of prima ballerina Misty Copeland and “This Little Light,” the Fannie Lou Hamer story. Most just lately, he wrote the civil rights challenge “Power to the People” for producer Ben Affleck and Paramount Pictures.

He is survived by a sister, Lynette Henley; a brother, Michael Henley; two nieces and a nephew.