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Robert McKee

Born

Detroit, Michigan, The United States

Website

http://www.mckeestory.com

Twitter

McKeeStory

Genre

Nonfiction

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Robert McKee began his show business career at age nine playing the title role in a community theatre production of MARTIN THE SHOEMAKER. He continued acting as a teenager in theatre productions in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Upon receiving the Evans Scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. While an undergraduate, he acted in and directed over thirty productions. McKee's creative writing professor was the noted Kenneth Rowe whose former students include Arthur Miller and Lawrence Kasdan.

After completing his B.A., McKee toured with the APA (Association of Producing Artists) Repertory Company, appearing on Broadway with such luminaries as Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris and Robert McKee began his show business career at age nine playing the title role in a community theatre production of MARTIN THE SHOEMAKER. He continued acting as a teenager in theatre productions in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Upon receiving the Evans Scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. While an undergraduate, he acted in and directed over thirty productions. McKee's creative writing professor was the noted Kenneth Rowe whose former students include Arthur Miller and Lawrence Kasdan.

After completing his B.A., McKee toured with the APA (Association of Producing Artists) Repertory Company, appearing on Broadway with such luminaries as Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris and Will Geer. He then received the Professional Theatre Fellowship and returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan to earn his Master's Degree in Theatre Arts.

Upon graduating, McKee directed the Toledo Repertory Company, acted with the American Drama Festival, and became Artistic Director of the Aaron Deroy Theatre. From there he traveled to London to accept the position of Artist-In-Residence at the National Theatre where he studied Shakespearean production at the Old Vic. He then returned to New York and spent the next seven years as an actor/director in various Off-Broadway, repertory and stock companies.

After deciding to move his career to film, McKee attended Cinema School at the University of Michigan. While there, he directed two short films - A DAY OFF, which he also wrote, and TALK TO ME LIKE THE RAIN, adapted from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. These two films won the Cine Eagle Award, awards at the Brussels and Grenoble Film Festivals, and various prizes at the Delta, Rochester, Chicago and Baltimore Film Festivals.

In 1979, McKee moved to Los Angeles, California where he began to write screenplays and work as a story analyst for United Artists and NBC. He sold his first screenplay, DEAD FILES, to AVCO/Embassy Films, after which he joined the WGA (Writers Guild of America). His next screenplay, HARD KNOCKS, won the National Screenwriting Contest, and since then McKee has had over eight feature film screenplays purchased or optioned, including the feature film script TROPHY for Warner Bros. In addition to his screenplays, McKee has had a number of scripts produced for such critically acclaimed dramatic television series as QUINCY, M.D. (starring Jack Klugman), COLUMBO (starring Peter Falk), SPENSER: FOR HIRE and KOJAK (starring Telly Savalas).

In 1983, McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, joined the faculty of the School of Cinema and Television at the University of Southern California (USC), where he began offering his now famous STORY SEMINAR class. A year later, McKee opened the course to the public and he now teaches the 3-day, 30-hour STORY SEMINAR to sold-out audiences around the world. From Los Angeles (where his course is only taught two times a year) to New York (two times a year) to Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Boston, San Francisco, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Singapore, Barcelona and 12 other film capitals around the world, more than 50,000 students have taken the course over the last 15+ years.

Through it all, McKee continues to be a project consultant to major film and television production companies, as well major software firms (Microsoft, etc.), news departments (ABC, etc.) and more. In addition, several companies such as ABC, Disney, Miramax, PBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount regularly send their entire creative and writing staffs to his lectures.

In 2000, McKee won the prestigious 1999 International Moving Image Book Award for his best-selling book STORY (Regan Books/HarperCollins). The book, currently in its 32nd printing in the U.S. and its 19th printing in the U.K., has become required reading for film and cinema schools at such top Universities as Harvard, Yale, UCLA, and USC, and was on the LOS ANGELES TIMES best-seller list for 20 weeks. ...more

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Robert McKee's Blog

Robert McKee isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

A Film Review: KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON

As the title suggests, the biographical documentary Keep On Keepin�� On sings a bebop hymn to perseverance. This well-told film portrays the life of legendary jazz artist and mentor of musicians, Clark Terry. Born in St. Louis in 1920, Clark played lead trumpet for Duke Ellington��s orchestra. His brilliant stylings inspired many hopefuls, including a […]

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Robert McKee’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 90,417 ratings · 7,524 reviews · 13 distinct works • Similar authors

	The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield (Goodreads Author), Robert McKee (Foreword) 3.99 avg rating — 90,125 ratings — published 2002 — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting 4.27 avg rating — 14,255 ratings — published 1997 — 54 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen 4.32 avg rating — 1,187 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Adaptation.: The Shooting Script by Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman, Susan Orlean (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 4.33 avg rating — 355 ratings — published 2000 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Storynomics: Story-Driven Marketing in the Post-Advertising World 3.77 avg rating — 373 ratings — published 2018 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Character: The Art of Role and Cast Design for Page, Stage, and Screen 4.37 avg rating — 104 ratings — published 2021 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Art of Darkness 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	International Banking 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1981	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Action: The Art of Excitement for Screen, Page, and Game by Robert McKee, Bassem el-Wakil it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	El personaje by Robert McKee, Manu Berástegui (Translator) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Robert McKee (?)

“True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.”
― Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

tags: character, choices, nature, pressure, revelation

161 likes

“Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.”
― Robert McKee

tags: writing

146 likes

“A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.”
― Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

tags: art, dance, music, painting, story

94 likes

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