Gregory Allen Howard, the writer and producer behind Harriet and Remember the Titans, died at the age of 70 in Miami, Florida due to a brief illness. He was the first African American writer to pen a script that would produce a $100 million film.
Howard was a two-time winner of the NAACP Image Awards, the Howard University Paul Robeson Award, the Christopher Award, and the Heartland Film Festival Award for his talent in screenwriting. He also worked on the award-winning stage play Tinseltown Trilogy starring Will Smith and Jamie Foxx.
Gregory Allen Howard Wrote ‘Harriet’ As A Tribute To Black Women
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Howard moved to Los Angeles in the 90s to pursue a job as a writer. His career started to blossom after he wrote Remember the Titans starring Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris, and Donald Faison. The story follows Herman Boone, an African American football coach who trains a racially diverse team and is said to be a true-to-life tale.
He later worked on the critically-acclaimed biopic of Muhammad Ali in 2001, which earned two Oscars. In 2019, Howard wrote Harriet, originally titled Freedom Fire, which he claimed to be two decades in the making after studying Harriet Tubman as a history student at Princeton University. The screenwriter told THR how he was inspired by her life story:
“What I waited for more than anything else is for the whole industry to change. There needed to be the #OscarsSoWhite and [more] diversity in Hollywood. All that had to happen, because anybody who greenlighted this movie was risking their job and/or career.”
The movie won two Oscar nominations, and Howard revealed that Harriet is dedicated to all Black women (via Focus Features).
“For me, this film is my valentine to Black women. I wanted them to be able to go to the movies on Saturday and see this young Black woman take on this incredible power structure and triumph over it.”
Harriet was Howard’s first assignment at Disney, and it starred Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Janelle Monae, and Joe Alwyn. Kasi Lemmons helmed the film.
Many Of Gregory Allen Howard’s Scripts Were Left Unproduced
Gregory Allen Howard remains an inspiration to aspiring writers who dream of making their voices heard. He chose to work in the arts industry instead of getting a profitable career because he wanted to bring awareness to the most powerful Black figures that shaped history. Howard has collaborated with some of the most prestigious and celebrated filmmakers in the industry.
A good amount of Howard’s works did not make it to the screens. He collaborated with Ridley Scott on the project Factor X about the serial killer known as BTK, and with Morgan Freeman on a true World War I story about a group of Black soldiers, but both projects did not materialize.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Focus Features
