Eric R. Roth (born March 22, 1945) is an American screenwriter. He has been nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay: Forrest Gump (1994), The Insider (1999), Munich (2005), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), A Star Is Born (2018), and Dune (2021) — winning for Forrest Gump; he also earned a Best Picture nomination for producing Mank (2020). Roth also worked on the screenplays for the Oscar-nominated films Ali (2001), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).

Early life and education

Roth was born in New York City, New York, into a Jewish family, the son of Miriam "Mimi", a teacher, studio executive, and radio writer, and Leon Roth, a university teacher and film producer. He grew up in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in New York. He grew up boxing and would credit some of his later successes to habits learned from the sport. Roth went to college at the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated in 1966. He later attended UCLA Film School as part of the class of 1973.

Career

Roth won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump. He is known for writing his scripts in a DOS program without Internet access and distributing the scripts only in hard copy formats. He followed his Academy Award win by co-writing screenplays for several Oscar-nominated films, including The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and A Star Is Born. While writing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, he lost both of his parents, and as a result views the film as "my most personal movie."

Personal life

Roth lives in Santa Monica, California. He has five children, including documentary filmmaker Vanessa Roth, and filmmakers Geoffrey Roth and Alec Roth; and six grandchildren. Roth was one of the investors defrauded by Bernard Madoff in a Ponzi scheme via Stanley Chais. He stated that his losses were heavy and he has lost his retirement money, although the full extent is unknown. As a result of the fraud and the associated losses, Roth sued the estate of Chais, who died on September 26, 2010.

Filmography

Film

As writer

Television

Accolades

Academy Awards

British Academy Film Awards

Critics' Choice Movie Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Primetime Emmy Awards

Producers Guild of America Award

Satellite Awards

Writers Guild of America Awards