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William Benedict Nicholson, OBE, FRSL[1] (born 12 January 1948) is a British screenwriter, playwright, and novelist who has been nominated twice for an Oscar.[2]

William Nicholson OBE, FRSL
Born	William Benedict Nicholson (1948-01-12) 12 January 1948 (age 74) Lewes, Sussex, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Screenwriter, playwright, and novelist
Education	Downside School Christ's College
Notable awards	Order of the British Empire Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (2010)
Website
www.williamnicholson.com

Early life

A native of Lewes, Sussex, William Nicholson was raised in a Roman Catholic family in Gloucestershire. By the time he reached his tenth birthday he had decided to become a writer. He was educated at Downside School, Somerset, and Christ's College, Cambridge.[3]

Career

At the start of his career Nicholson worked for the BBC as a director of documentary films with numerous works to his credit[4] between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. He gained renown as a novelist and playwright when the first book of his popular Wind On Fire trilogy won the Blue Peter best book award and the Smarties Gold Award for Best Children's Book. He has written several novels and fantasy books.

He married author Virginia Nicholson (née Bell) in 1988.^{[citation needed]}

Screenplays and theatre

He has twice been nominated for Tony Awards for best play, for Shadowlands and The Retreat from Moscow. He also turned Shadowlands, based on the relationship between C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, into a BBC-TV play in 1985, and an acclaimed film in 1993. The latter starred Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger and was directed by Richard Attenborough. Following screenplays included Nell (1994), First Knight (1995) and Grey Owl (1999). He later worked as a writer on the Academy Award winning epic Gladiator (2000), which had a very difficult production, and made his directorial debut with the 1997 film Firelight.

In 2007, Nicholson co-wrote Elizabeth: The Golden Age, from an earlier script by Michael Hirst. In 2012, Nicholson adapted the hit musical Les Misérables into a film directed by Tom Hooper. Following this, Nicholson would write several more historical dramas, such as Unbroken, Everest and Breathe. He directed another film, Hope Gap, in 2019.

Awards, nominations and honours

William Nicholson's first nomination came in 1989 when BAFTA TV Awards included the 1987 teleplay Sweet as You Are, which he co-wrote with Ruth Caleb and Angela Pope, on its list of candidates for Best Single Drama. His next nominations were for 1994's Shadowlands, when he was a contender for both a BAFTA and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. 1997 was another successful year, with an Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Special Emmy nomination for the 1996 TV drama Crime of the Century. He was also singled out at the San Sebastian International Film Festival for Firelight, with a nomination for the Golden Seashell Award and a win of the Special Prize of the Jury.

2000 turned out to be Nicholson's most impressive year to date, with acclaim for the Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator. He had nominations for the Sierra Award from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards and the Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, followed by Best Screenplay nominations from both BAFTA and Oscar.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to drama and literature.[5][6]

Books

Fantasy novels

• Wind On Fire trilogy
  • The Wind Singer
  • Slaves of the Mastery
  • Firesong
• Noble Warriors Trilogy
  • Seeker (UK release 2005)
  • Jango (UK release 2006)
  • Noman (UK release 2007)

Novels

• The Seventh Level, A Sexual Progress (1979)

Why is this happening

• The Society of Others (UK release 2004)
• The Trial of True Love (UK release 2005)
• The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life (UK release 2009)
• Rich and Mad (UK release 2010)
• All The Hopeful Lovers (UK release 2010)
• Motherland (UK release 2013)
• Reckless (UK release 2014)
• The Lovers of Amherst (UK release 2015)
• Adventures in Modern Marriage (UK release 2022

Stage plays

• Shadowlands (1989) - Writer
• The Retreat from Moscow (1989) - Writer

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1993	Shadowlands	Richard Attenborough	Nominated- Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
1994	Nell	Michael Apted
1995	First Knight	Jerry Zucker
1997	Firelight	Himself	Directorial debut
1999	Grey Owl	Richard Attenborough
2000	Gladiator	Ridley Scott	Nominated- Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
2007	Elizabeth: The Golden Age	Shekhar Kapur
2012	Les Misérables	Tom Hooper
2013	Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom	Justin Chadwick
2014	Unbroken	Angelina Jolie
2015	Everest	Baltasar Kormákur
2017	Breathe	Andy Serkis
2019	Hope Gap	Himself
2022	Thirteen Lives	Ron Howard

References

External links

• Official website
• William Nicholson at IMDb
• Fansite
• William Nicholson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• William Nicholson at Library of Congress Authorities, with 39 catalogue records

На других языках

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[de] William Nicholson (Schriftsteller)

William Benedict Nicholson OBE (* 12. Januar 1948 in Tunbridge Wells in England) ist ein Schriftsteller, Drehbuchautor und Regisseur. Für das Drehbuch zum Film Gladiator aus dem Jahr 2000 wurde er für den Oscar nominiert.

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- [en] William Nicholson (writer)

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[es] William Nicholson (escritor)

William Nicholson, OBE, RSL[1] (12 de enero de 1948) es un guionista, dramaturgo y novelista inglés ganador de los premios BAFTA y nominado dos veces a los Óscar.[2] Es conocido por ser el autor de los guiones de Gladiator[3] y Shadowlands.

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