Jack Fitzgerald

Jack Fitzgerald grew up in Okolona, Mississippi, a tiny town in the northeastern part of the state. During his formative years, he viewed first-hand the microcosmos of what small-town living was all about. Much of it was friendly and neighborly but underneath it all was jealousy, pride, ego and an obsession with the trivial, vacuous and absurd. By the time he finished high school, he felt he was quite versed in how folks interacted with one another. He dreamed of leaving because he had no desire to remain and help replicate another generation of such goings on.

He badgered his parents into letting him attend college in Mexico City at the University of Mexico. They finally gave in but his mother was sure she would never lay eyes on him again. While in this gigantic metropolitan city, he did things he could only have dreamed of in Okolona. He learned and spoke another language, he appeared as an extra in some movies and he met people from all over the world.

From Mexico he returned to the United States and joined the army. His plan was to get the G. I. Bill of Rights, which would pay for his college. He was sent overseas to Japan and learned yet another set of insights. After those experiences, he finished his B. A. at Mississippi State University.

Upon graduating with a degree in English (the year was 1957), he found the only thing he could do was get a job teaching in another small Mississippi town for $2,700 a year. He decided that was not for him. Instead he went to Cuba where he taught English as a foreign language. His mother again thought she would never see him again. She was partially right because he got caught up in the revolution which ushered Fidel Castro into power. Under this new regime, he was no longer welcomed and was deported.

In Florida he taught a year and decided to attend Middlebury College in Vermont. He enrolled in their graduate school in Spain and received his M. A. from the University of Madrid. While there, he taught school, appeared in several Spanish films and on stage. He returned to the USA and taught Spanish at Wake Forest University and New York State University.

He ultimately moved to Paris, France, several years later where he founded the Paris English Theatre. Nine of his plays had their original productions there. He also appeared in several French films, did TV commercials (mainly with cheese products and as an American tourist).

The success of his plays caused him to be hired to write a screenplay in Hollywood. He left France and remained in California acting and writing screenplays for the next twenty years. On TV he was seen in everything from ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE to THE GOLDEN GIRLS. In movies he appeared in over thirty films.

He retired to Palm Springs, CA but soon got bored and began writing books. His first is a novel CONTESSA which includes a lot of his adventures during the Cuban Revolution and deals with the life story of a Hollywood Movie star transsexual. His second book entitled PARIS PLAYS is an anthology of his nine plays which had their original productions in Paris. His next book VIVA LA EVOLUCION is a humorous satire of our present-day excesses and hype in our everyday lives. He had not tried writing a mystery so he came out with TEDDY BEAR MURDERS, a Miss Marple type murder mystery. In 2013, ROGER SHOULD HAVE SAID YES was a published anthology containing four of his screenplays. So many people responded favorably to TEDDY BEAR MURDERS that he wrote a sequel in 2015 called MURDER IMPOSSIBLE. In April 2019 saw his book CONFESSIONS OF A SCRIPT DOCTOR published. This book is receiving high praise from its reviewers.

You can find more information at his web site and blog which are at www.jackfitzgerald.com. He would be extremely pleased to count you among his readers.