Richard LaGravenese
American screenwriter and director
Richard LaGravenese (; born October 30, 1959) is an American screenwriter and film director, known for The Fisher King, The Bridges of Madison County, and Behind the Candelabra.
Personal life
LaGravenese was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a taxi driver. He is of Italian descent. He graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1980 with a bachelor of fine arts degree in acting.
Career
LaGravenese wrote The Fisher King on spec in the late 1980s. It was acquired by Stacey Sher, Lynda Obst, Debra Hill's production company and subsequently directed by Terry Gilliam. For writing the film, LaGravenese received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
In New York City during the early 1980s, billed as "The Double R" comedy duo, in collaboration with playwright Richard O'Donnell, LaGravenese co-penned and consecutively performed in several Off-Off-Broadway productions including Spare Parts, Blood-Brothers at The 78th Street Theatre Lab, The Lion Theatre, and West Bank Cafe.
LaGravenese wrote an adaptation for the famously on-and-off version of the musical Gypsy for Barbra Streisand. In 2015, he revealed that he'd spent several months working on the script with Streisand.
“Richard LaGravenese” enters the record as american screenwriter and director. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Richard, LaGravenese and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Richard LaGravenese” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Richard, LaGravenese and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q269670. VIAF identifies the subject as 27118371. The Library of Congress control number is n91082538. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1980 and 2015.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Richard LaGravenese”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Richard LaGravenese primary sources, Richard LaGravenese archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Richard LaGravenese”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Richard LaGravenese” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.