Charles Purpora, Screenwriter ("Heaven Help Us")

[d***@comcast.net]

Saw a message on another board that Charles Purpora has died at 56. He
wrote the comedy "Heaven Help Us"(1985) & "Satisfaction"(1988) a comedy
that gave Julia Roberts one of her first roles. In the '60's, he was a
member of the rock band The Front Porch.

[Brad Ferguson]

Post by d***@comcast.net
Saw a message on another board that Charles Purpora has died at 56. He
wrote the comedy "Heaven Help Us"(1985) & "Satisfaction"(1988) a comedy
that gave Julia Roberts one of her first roles. In the '60's, he was a
member of the rock band The Front Porch.

"Heaven Help Us" is one of those little films that should have drawn
more notice than it did. It's about a Catholic boys' high school in
NYC in 1965, and much of it is true and good, and not really
exaggerated at all.

There's an actor in it, Jay Patterson, who plays a sadistic teacher,
Brother Constance. Patterson's Constance is perfect -- a cruel
scumbag, the reflection of many such that I'd encountered in such
places during those times.

A year or two after I saw the film, I was on the 6th Avenue subway, and
there, right in front of me, sitting down where I was standing, was Jay
Patterson. I suddenly had an almost overpowering urge to punch the
poor man.

I had always wondered about those crazy ladies who'd accost soap-opera
actors on the street and beat them over the head with their umbrellas
because the characters they played were evil. I understood them a
little better after I ran into Jay Patterson.

[d***@comcast.net]

Screenwriter and screenwriting teacher Charlie Purpura died March 20 of
natural causes in Massapequa, N.Y. He was 59.
He was the writer of "Heaven Help Us," a film about teens in a Catholic
high school, which starred Andrew McCarthy and Mary Stuart Masterson.
His television film, "The Day The Senior Class Got Married" won a DGA
Award and the Humanitas Award. "The Girls of Summer," in which Julia
Roberts played a member of a rock band, began as a television film and
received theatrical release as "Satisfaction."

As a teacher of screenwriting at The Goldberg Department of Dramatic
Writing in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Purpura was a mentor to
undergraduate and grad students.

Born and raised in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, Purpura was a
rock and roll musician before becoming a film writer.

He is survived by his wife Jennie and a son.

Donations in support of student scholarships may be sent to N.Y.U.
Tisch School of the Arts, c/o Mark Dickerman, Chair Goldberg Department
of Dramatic Writing, 721 Broadway, Room 742 New York, N.Y. (Variety)