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Ernest Thompson, (born November 6, 1949), in Bellows Falls, Vermont, is an American Playwright and actor. He spent his early years in Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington, D.C., attending secondary school and American University. He is best known as the author of the play, On Golden Pond, which he penned at the early age of twenty-eight. The play opened off-Broadway in 1978, and then onto the Broadway stage. On Golden Pond went on to become a hit movie in 1981, starring Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Thompson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie in 1982, as well as awards from the Golden Globes and The Writers Guild of America.

Thompson’s second popular play, The West Side Waltz, opened on Broadway, starring Katherine Hepburn. Thompson is quoted as saying that West Side Waltz came about after a telephone call he received on behalf of legendary screenwriter, George Seaton, who wrote the screen play for Miracle On Thirty-Fourth Street, offering Thompson "the first and only George Seaton grant” to write a new play. Thompson spent a great deal of time on his second popular work, much unlike On Golden Pond, which he said was a very quick work to write. The television version originally premiered on Thanksgiving night on CBS television in 1995, starring actors Shirley Maclaine, Liza Minnelli, Kathy Bates, and Jennifer Grey.

Ernest Thompson, the actor, is probably best known as Ranger Matt Harper on NBC’s short-lived 1974 series, Sierra. He also appeared on the NBC soap opera Somerset as Tony Cooper #2. Thompson admits he was lucky as an actor, as his work in acting was not steady, and was quoted as saying he turned to writing after too much familiarity with unemployment.

Thompson wrote the screenplay for the feature film, Sweet Hearts Dance, directed by Robert Greenwald starring Susan Sarandon and Don Johnson. He then went on in 1989 to direct 1969, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Winona Ryder.

During the '90s, Thompson stuck with writing and directing television movies with Out of Time, and also Take Me Home Again, released on DVD as The Lies Boys Tell, in 1994, based on the novel by Lamar Herrin, starring Kirk Douglas and Craig T. Nelson.

In 2001, he directed his own TV version of On Golden Pond, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

Thompson's latest major project, a movie in pre-production, as of this writing, is "The Love Line", [1], starring Thompson and Pamela Lambert, [2].

Today, Thompson lives most of the year in New Hampshire, where he runs a summer camp for aspiring playwrights.