John Sayles

Vocation

Lifestyle

Traits

American actor, screenwriter, producer, editor and director of low-budget films. His first big hit was "Return Of The Secaucus Seven," in 1980. It was the surprise hit of the Los Angeles Filmex festival and was also selected as one of the ten best films of 1980 by several magazines. Sayles, tall and gawky, rumpled and talented has been winning awards since he was 25, when he won an O'Henry short story award. In school he earned letters in basketball, football, baseball and track. In college he had the revelation that people earn a living, so while writing and watching foreign films, he worked as an orderly in a nursing home then as a day laborer. He was fired from a sausage factory and spent 37 weeks on unemployment insurance before getting an advance on his first novel, "Price Of The Bimbos," 1973 . His first film script was "Piranha." He also wrote, "Alligator", "The Howling" and "Battle Beyond The Stars" and directed "Lianna," 1983, "Baby It's You," 1983 and "The Brother From Another Planet," 1984. Link to Wikipedia biography