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Steven E. de Souza
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Steven E. de Souza (b. 17 November 1947) is an American producer, director and scriptwriter of Jamaican ancestry. He is among a handful of screenwriters whose films have earned over two billion dollars at the box office.
He is a graduate of Penn State.
De Souza is credited with being the writer for seven TV series, including The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Knight Rider and Tales from the Crypt. He was also responsible for several of the most successful films of the 1980s including 48 Hrs., Die Hard, Die Hard 2 and Commando.
De Souza later scripted Beverly Hills Cop III, Judge Dredd and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, and produced and directed a number of films, including the much maligned Street Fighter film adaptation.
De Souza started his film career producing the low budget film Arnold's Wrecking Company in which he gathered a few of his friends and neighbors to create. Although the film has been heralded as dreadful, it succeeded in gathering attention and got his name out.
He has been nominated twice for the Edgar Allan Poe award, an award given to any piece of media for excellence in mystery writing. The first in 1984 for 48 Hrs. and again in 1989 for Die Hard. de Souza also won the Razzie Award in 1991 when Hudson Hawk garnered enough hatred to be dubbed "Worst Screenplay." Recently, in 2000 he was honored with the Norman Lear Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing.
In 2002, he signed on to write a draft of The Ghost Who Walks, based on Lee Falk's comic The Phantom. However, he was replaced by Mel Stewart and Mark Brewington.
His daughter Amy de Souza has worked miscellaneous film crew jobs.