John Byrum

John Byrum was born on Mar 14, 1947 in USA. John Byrum's big-screen debut came with Mahogany directed by Berry Gordy in 1975.

John Williams Byrum was born and raised in Winnetka, Illinois. While attending NYU Film School, he worked as an intern for Jim Henson and the Muppets, eventually working as a writer on the new 1, rue Sésame (1969) show. Byrum moved to Los Angeles to pursue film work after writing several screenplays, including Gros plan (1975). On the basis of that writing sample, he worked with producers Tony Bill, Don Devlin and Harry Gittes to write the script Deux farfelus à New York (1976) which was bought by Columbia Pictures for a record-breaking amount. Byrum then worked with Tony Richardson and Berry Gordy, writing the script for the Diana Ross vehicle, Mahogany (1975). Byrum directed his film Gros plan (1975) with Richard Dreyfuss and Jessica Harper, then wrote and directed Heart Beat (1980) - based upon the lives of Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Carolyn Cassady, starring Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek and John Heard and followed with Le fil du rasoir (1984) - co-written with Bill Murray and starring Murray, Catherine Hicks, Theresa Russell, James Keach and Denholm Elliott. With the box office failure of Le fil du rasoir (1984), Byrum directed the goof-ball comedy The Whoopee Boys (1986) starring Michael O'Keefe and Paul Rodriguez and various stand-up comedians of the time, along with Denholm Elliott and Carole Shelley. Byrum turned to television, creating, writing and producing the critically-praised series Middle Ages (1992) starring Peter Riegert and writing, directing and producing the TV film/pilot Meurtre dans les hautes sphères (1991), loosely based on a fictional Hunter Thompson-type character. Other series created, written and produced by Byrum include Winnetka Road (1994) and South of Sunset (1993), a television show that starred rock legend Glenn Frey of Eagles. Byrum's original screenplay Duos d'un jour (2000) was due to begin production, starring Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow, when the couple's broken engagement derailed the project temporarily. "Duets" was eventually made with Gwyneth Paltrow, her father Bruce Paltrow directing, with Scott Speedman in the role originally pegged for Brad Pitt.John Byrum has two children and resides in Connecticut with his wife and dogs.