Eleanor Bergstein
Eleanor Bergstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | Eleanor Bergstein (1938-04-17) April 17, 1938New York, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
| Subject | American film |
| Spouse | Michael Paul Goldman (m. 1965;died 2023) |
Eleanor Bergstein (born April 17, 1938) is an American writer, known for writing and co-producing Dirty Dancing, a popular 1980s film based in large part on her own childhood.[1]
Life and career
Bergstein was born in 1938 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. She has one older sister, Frances, in her Jewish family. Their father, Joseph,[2] was a doctor who left much of the care of the girls to their mother, Sarah. The family spent summers in the luxury resorts Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel in the Catskill Mountains; and, while her parents were playing golf, Bergstein was dancing.[3]
Bergstein was a teenage Mambo queen, competing in local competitions. While at college, she worked as a dance instructor at Arthur Murray dance studios.[4] Bergstein graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958.
In 1965, she was married to Michael Paul Goldman. They were married until his death in 2023.[5] She worked as a novelist, including Advancing Paul Newman. This novel contains many of the themes of her famous movie. She also tried her hand at scriptwriting and had success with It's My Turn, a film starring Michael Douglas and Jill Clayburgh. During production, the producers cut an erotic dance scene from the script. That sparked Bergstein into writing a more extensive story, focusing on "dirty dancing".
The movie Dirty Dancing was released in theaters in 1987.[6]
In 2004, Bergstein also adapted the movie into a stage version of Dirty Dancing, which became a musical.[7] The show opened in 2004 in Australia.
Works
- Dirty Dancing: The Musical, 2004 stage production
- Let It Be Me, 1995 film
- Ex-Lover: A Novel, 1989 novel
- Dirty Dancing, 1987 film
- It's My Turn, 1980 screenplay
- Advancing Paul Newman, 1973 novel
External links
- “A Conversation with Eleanor Bergstein, Writer and Producer of ‘Dirty Dancing,’ on its 30th Anniversary”, Sophie Aroesty, Jewcy, August 28, 2017.
- "Private Dancers", June 15, 2005, The Age
- Dirty Dancing, The E! True Hollywood Story, television documentary, first aired September 3, 2000
- Snider, Mike (April 24, 2007). "Dirty Dancing: Baby's Out of the Corner". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 27, 2007. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
- Eleanor Bergstein at IMDb