John Jay Osborn Jr.

John Jay Osborn Jr. (born August 5, 1945) is a U.S. author, lawyer and legal academic. He is best known for his bestselling novel, The Paper Chase, a fictional account of one Harvard Law School student's battles with the imperious Professor Charles Kingsfield. The book was made into a 1973 film starring John Houseman and Timothy Bottoms. Houseman won an Oscar for his performance as contracts professor Kingsfield. The Paper Chase also became a television series, and Osborn wrote several of the scripts.

John Jay Osborn Jr.
Osborn in 2016
Born (1945-08-05) August 5, 1945
Occupationnovelist, screenwriter, attorney, law professor
Notable worksThe Paper Chase, The Associates

Osborn's third novel, The Associates, was adapted into a short-lived television series starring Martin Short and Wilfrid Hyde-White.[1]

He is one of the writers (along with Thomas A. Cohen) of the screenplay for the 2010 film version of the 1983 novel The River Why by David James Duncan. The movie, starring William Hurt and Kathleen Quinlan, was screened in 2010 at various film festivals.[2]

Background

His parents were Anne (née Kidder) and John Jay Osborn Sr.; he is a descendant of both John Jay,[3] the first Chief Justice of the United States, and of railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt.[4]

He received a Bachelor of Arts in American History from Harvard University in 1967 and graduated with a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1970.[5] He also did graduate work at Yale Law School. He taught law at the University of Miami, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the UC Berkeley School of Law,[1] and the University of San Francisco School of Law, from which he retired in 2018.[4] He clerked for Judge Max Rosenn of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1970 to 1972, and was later an attorney with the firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.

He is married to Emilie H. S. Osborn, a Radcliffe College graduate who is a physician with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.[4] They have three children, Sam, Meredith (who also attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School) and Shef.[6]

Publications

Novels

  • The Paper Chase (1971)
  • The Only Thing I've Done Wrong (1977)
  • The Associates (1979)
  • The Man Who Owned New York (1981)
  • Listen to the Marriage (2018)

Scripts [7]

  • The Paper Chase (15 of 54 episodes, 1978-1986)
    • "The Man Who Would Be King" (1978)
    • "A Day in the Life of..." (1978)
    • "Moot Court" (1978)
    • "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (1978)
    • "Scavenger Hunt" (1979)
    • "Outline Fever" (1983)
    • "Birthday Party" (1983)
    • "Plague of Locusts" (1983)
    • "Snow" (1983)
    • "Mrs. Hart" (1984)
    • "War of the Wonks" (1984)
    • "Billy Pierce" (1984) (teleplay only)
    • "Decisions: Part 1" (1985)
    • "Decisions: Part 2" (1985)
    • "Honor" (1986)
  • L.A. Law (1 episode, 1986-1994)
    • "December Bribe" (1987)

References
  1. Haberman, Clyde; Krebs, Albin (September 14, 1979). "Notes on People; Street Theater". New York Times. p. B4. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
  2. The River Why (2009)
  3. Feron, James (October 18, 1981). "Westchester Journal". New York Times. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
  4. Sipher, Devan (5 September 2010), "Meredith Osborn, Christiaan Highsmith", The New York Times, pp. ST16, retrieved 2010-10-03
  5. Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.
  6. Garcia, Ken (January 28, 2003). "Father of the 'Paper Chase' / San Francisco writer helped define Harvard". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  7. "John Jay Osborn Jr". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-09-10.


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