Erica Wexler on her father and screenwriting

In the glittering glamorous Hollywood world the screenwriter is the unsung hero in the film-making process. There's an old joke: "The actress was so stupid she fucked the screenwriter ." Unlike the theatre, where the playwright is king, in the hollywood hierarchy of power and importance, the writer is near the bottom, sandwiched between organic caterers and and the star's on-set cellulite adviser. My dad said " once they have the script you never hear back from anyone."

As the daughter of one, I have to sing the screenwriter's praises. Not one page can be directed or word acted until a writer imagines it all from nothing. Without a strong script, you will have a crap movie - a basic fact that Hollywood players still have a hard time accepting. A starlet's exploding lips and no amount of 3D CGI alien octopods can make up for bad writing.

My father's Hollywood experience was typical for a screenwriter. Hired  for his celebrated credentials ,  he was continually frustrated by meddling studio heads, anxious producers, narcissistic stars, ego maniacal directors, all rewriting his work.

On many projects, so embarrassed was he by the rewritten and mangled script, he took a pseudonymous credit to hide behind. These common screenwriting trials eventually drove him back to playwrighting.

My father always said he was lucky for he knew success was not just a combination of hard work and talent but that of good fortune; that random magic which is the critical component for success. Ever humble, his writing craft and consciousness was deeply grounded in theatre, protecting him from the gaseous grandiosity of Hollywood hype. "It's a good piece of work," was the highest praise he gave for an artistic endeavour.

All of his acclaimed films were shot from his edited first draft screenplays: a fact which demonstrates he was a master craftsman. His success, he often reflected, was due to the fact that they had run out of time to mess with his script.