Dennis Lehane

Dennis Lehane
Lehane at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival
Born	(1965-08-04) August 4, 1965 Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts
Occupation	Novelist, screenwriter
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Eckerd College, Florida International University
Genre	Crime fiction, mystery fiction
Spouse	Sheila Lawn (divorced) Dr. Angela Bernardo (1 child)
Website
www.dennislehane.com

Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author. He has written several novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring a couple of protagonists and other recurring characters, including A Drink Before the War. Of these, his fourth, Gone, Baby, Gone, was adapted as a 2007 film by the same name.

Lehane has taken on different topics in other novels. Those adapted as films of the same name included Mystic River (2001), with a 2003 film by the same name, directed by Clint Eastwood, which won several awards. Shutter Island was adapted as a 2010 film directed by Martin Scorsese. Lehane is a graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Personal life

Lehane was born and raised in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. He continues to live in the Boston area, where he sets most of his books. He spent summers on Fieldston Beach in Marshfield. Lehane is the youngest of five children. His father was a foreman for Sears & Roebuck, and his mother worked in a Boston public school cafeteria; both of his parents immigrated from Ireland. His brother, Gerry Lehane, who is two and a half years older than Dennis, trained at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence and became an actor in New York in 1990. Gerry is a member of the Invisible City Theatre Company.

Lehane married Sheila Lawn, formerly an advocate for the elderly for the city of Boston but by 2007 working with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office as an Assistant District Attorney. They divorced.

Lehane married to Dr. Angela Bernardo, with whom he has one daughter. He lost his beagle, Tessa, in the fall of 2012 and is continuing the search for her.

He is a graduate of Boston College High School (a Jesuit prep school), Eckerd College (where he found his passion for writing), and the graduate program in creative writing at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. He occasionally makes guest appearances as himself in the ABC comedy/drama TV series Castle.

Career

Literary career

Lehane's first novel, A Drink Before the War (1994), which introduced the recurring characters Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, won the 1995 Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel. The fourth novel in the series, Gone, Baby, Gone, was adapted to a film of the same title in 2007; it was directed by Ben Affleck and starred Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan as Kenzie and Gennaro. Commenting on the movie after a sneak peek, Lehane said, "I saw the movie and it's terrific, I wasn't gonna say anything if I didn't like it but it's really terrific." Reportedly, Lehane "has never wanted to write the screenplays for the films [based on his own books], because he says he has 'no desire to operate on my own child.'"

Lehane at a book signing in February 2009

Lehane's novel Mystic River was adapted as a film in 2003; also called Mystic River and directed by Clint Eastwood, it starred Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon (Lehane can be briefly seen waving from a car in the parade scene at the end of the film). The novel itself was a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award and won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction, and France's Prix Mystère de la Critique.

Lehane's first play, Coronado, debuted in New York in December 2005, produced by Invisible City Theater Company. The play had its regional premiere at American Stage in St. Petersburg in April 2006 and its Midwest premiere in the fall of 2007 with Steep Theatre Company in Chicago. Coronado is based on his acclaimed short story Until Gwen, which was originally published in The Atlantic Monthly and was selected for both The Best American Short Stories and The Best Mystery Short Stories of 2005.

Lehane described working on his historical novel, The Given Day, as "a five- or six-year project." the novel opens in 1918 and encompasses the 1919 Boston Police Strike and its aftermath. According to Lehane, "The strike changed everything ... It had a big effect on the unionization movement, and Prohibition came on the heels of that, then Calvin Coolidge promising to break the unions. That's all linked to what's going on now.". While Lehane's epic novel centers on the 1919 Boston police strike, it contains a national sweep and may be the first of a trilogy or perhaps a four-book series. Lehane called the novel his "great white whale" and said that when he finally finished it, he would "either write a sequel—or take a break from the cops and return to Patrick and Angie." The novel was published in October 2008.

On October 22, 2007 Paramount Pictures announced that they had optioned Shutter Island with Martin Scorsese attached as director. The Laeta Kalogridis-scripted adaptation has Leonardo DiCaprio playing U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, "who is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island." Mark Ruffalo played opposite DiCaprio as U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule. Production started in March 2008; Shutter Island was released on February 19, 2010.

In 2010 Lehane published Moonlight Mile, his sixth book in the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series, and his first of that genre in 11 years. He published World Gone By in March 2015.

Lehane was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library by Mayor Thomas Menino in December 2011.

Teaching career

Lehane at Barnes & Noble Union Square, New York City, August 15, 2006.

Since becoming a literary success, Lehane has taught at several colleges. He taught fiction writing and serves as a member of the board of directors for the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program program at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He has also taught advanced fiction writing at Harvard University, where his classes quickly filled up.

In May 2005, Lehane was presented with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Eckerd College and was appointed to Eckerd's Board of Trustees later that year. As of June 2006, he was living temporarily in St. Petersburg, Florida, and teaching as writer-in-residence at Eckerd (usually during the spring semester), where he also co-directs the Writers in Paradise conference each January.

Film career

Lehane wrote and directed an independent film called Neighborhoods in the mid-1990s. Later described as similar to Good Will Hunting, it was set in Boston's working class areas like Southie and Dorchester. Its production ended in 1996, more than a year before the better-known Good Will Hunting.

Lehane joined the writing staff of the HBO drama series The Wire for the third season in 2004. Lehane wrote the teleplay for the episode "Dead Soldiers" from a story by series creator and executive producer David Simon. Lehane made a cameo appearance in the third season episode, "Middle Ground," as Sullivan, an officer in charge of special equipment. Lehane has commented that he was impressed by the show's creators (David Simon and Ed Burns) having such an ear for authentic street slang. Lehane returned as a writer for the fourth season in 2006 and wrote the teleplay for the episode "Refugees," from a story he co-wrote with producer Ed Burns. Lehane and the writing staff won the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2008 ceremony and the 2007 Edgar Award for Best Television Feature/Mini-Series Teleplay for their work on the fourth season. Lehane served as a writer for the fifth and final season in 2008 and was credited with the episode "Clarifications". Lehane and the writing staff were nominated for the WGA Award for Best Dramatic Series again at the February 2009 ceremony for their work on the fifth season but Mad Men won the award.

He served as an executive producer for Shutter Island. On November 27, 2012, The Boston Herald reported that Lehane would be joining the writing staff of HBO's Boardwalk Empire as a writer and a creative consultant. He will consult with showrunner Terence Winter on the outline of the fourth season of the show, and he confirmed that he would write at least one episode.

Lehane wrote his first film screenplay, The Drop, as an adaptation of his short story, "Animal Rescue." The film starred Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and James Gandolfini (in his final film performance). Released September 12, 2014, the movie received positive reviews, particularly for its "smartly written script." Lehane has been contracted to write a screenplay, Silk Road, about the online black market. He is also attached to adapt the script for the remake of the critically acclaimed French film A Prophet, a prison drama.

Works

Bibliography

The Kenzie-Gennaro novels

• A Drink Before the War (1994). ISBN 015100093X
• Darkness, Take My Hand (1996). ISBN 0688143806
• Sacred (1997). ISBN 0688143814
• Gone, Baby, Gone (1998). ISBN 0688153321
• Prayers for Rain (1999). ISBN 068815333X
• Moonlight Mile (2010). ISBN 0061836923

Coughlin series

• The Given Day (2008). ISBN 978-0688163181
• Live By Night (2012). ISBN 978-0060004873
• World Gone By (2015). ISBN 978-0060004903

Other works

• Mystic River (2001). ISBN 0688163165
• Shutter Island (2003). ISBN 0688163173
• Coronado: Stories (2006). ISBN 978-0061139673
• The Drop (2014). ISBN 978-0062365446

Filmography

• Mystic River (2003) novel the film is based on.
• The Wire (2002 TV series) writer
  • Episode 3.03 "Dead Soldiers" (2004) story and teleplay
  • Episode 4.04 "Refugees" (2006) story and teleplay
  • Episode 5.08 "Clarifications" (2008) story and teleplay
• Gone Baby Gone (2007) novel the film is based on.
• Shutter Island (2010) novel the film is based on; executive producer
• Castle (2009) actor, as himself
  • Episode 3.21 "The Dead Pool" (2011)
• Boardwalk Empire (2013) writer; creative consultant
• The Drop (2014) screenwriter, based on his own short story "Animal Rescue"

Awards and nominations

Year	Nominated work	Award	Category	Result
2003	Mystic River	USC Scripter Awards		Won
2004		Edgar Awards	Best Motion Picture Screenplay	Nominated
2007	The Wire		Best TV Feature or Mini-Series Teleplay	Won
		WGA Awards	Outstanding Dramatic Series	Won
2008				Nominated
2010	Animal Rescue	Edgar Awards	Best Short Story	Nominated
2013	Live by Night		Best Novel	Won
	Boardwalk Empire	OFTA Awards	Best Writing in a Drama Series	Nominated
Note: Awards are listed in order of the effective years, annual ceremonies are usually held the following.

Notes

• A ^ Shared with Brian Helgeland, while tied with Gary Ross and Laura Hillenbrand for Seabiscuit
• B ^ Also shared with Helgeland.
• C ^ Shared with Ed Burns, Kia Corthron, David Mills, Eric Overmyer, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon and William F. Zorzi.
• D ^ Shared with Burns, Chris Collins, Corthron, Mills, Overmyer, Pelecanos, Price, Simon and Zorzi.
• E ^ Also shared with Burns, Collins, Mills, Pelecanos, Price, Simon and Zorzi.
• F ^ Shared with Terence Winter, Nelson Johnson, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki, Cristine Chambers, David Flebotte, David M. Matthews, David Stenn, and Jennifer Ames.

He has won other professional awards and honorary degrees: In Spring 2009, Lehane received the Joseph E. Connor Award and was made an honorary brother of the Phi Alpha Tau professional fraternity at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Other brothers and Connor Award recipients include Robert Frost, Elia Kazan, Jack Lemmon, Red Skelton, Edward R. Murrow, Yul Brynner, and Walter Cronkite. Also in Spring 2009, Lehane presented the commencement speech at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, and was awarded an honorary degree. On October 6, 2015, Lehane won a spot in Best American Mystery Stories.

External links

• Official Website
• Dennis Lehane at the Internet Movie Database
• Gone, Baby, Gone entry, IMDb
• Interview with Dennis Lehane, Writing Life
• Interview with Dennis Lehane 2001, January Magazine
• Interview with Dennis Lehane 2003, Powells Books
• Dennis Lehane on Mystic River
• John Connolly interview with Dennis Lehane 2000
• "Dennis Lehane Talks" - an August 2005 Maddux Business Report interview
• Fantastic Fiction Profile
• 2009 Video Interview with The Given Day reading
• 2011 Interview in Shotsmag Ezine on 'The Moonlight Mile'