Biography
Jay Presson Allen (March 3, 1922 – May 1, 2006) was an American screenwriter, television producer and novelist. She was one of few women making a living as a screenwriter at a time when women were a rarity in the profession. She was born as Jacqueline Presson, the only child of Willie Mae, a buyer, and Albert Jack Presson, a department store merchant. She wrote the screenplay for Lord of the Flies (1990) under the pseudonym Sara Schiff.
Known For
Complete Filmography
Screenwriters on Screenwriting
2008
This documentary premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Explore the challenging world of the screenwriter with renowned industry writers.
Prince of the City: The Real Story
2007
as Self
The true story behind the Prince of the City.
Rescued from the Closet
2001
as Self
Rescued from the Closet is a 2001 documentary consisting of interviews originally recorded for the 1995 film The Celluloid Closet. It explores the his...
The Trouble with 'Marnie'
2000
as Self
This hour long documentary on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" incorporates the usual melange of contemporary interviews with surviving parti...
The Celluloid Closet
1996
as Self
What "That's Entertainment" did for movie musicals, "The Celluloid Closet" does for Hollywood homosexuality, as this exuberant, eye-opening movie serv...
Lord of the Flies
1990
Screenplay
When their plane crashes, 25 schoolboys find themselves trapped on a tropical island, miles from civilization.
The Verdict
1982
Writer
Frank Galvin is a down-on-his-luck lawyer and reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing, when a former associate reminds him of his obligations in a m...
Deathtrap
1982
Screenplay, Executive Producer
A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's script.
Prince of the City
1981
Screenplay, Executive Producer
New York City detective Daniel Ciello agrees to help the United States Department of Justice help eliminate corruption in the police department, as lo...
It's My Turn
1980
Executive Producer
A successful but stressed mathematics professor goes to her father's wedding and falls in love with her father's bride's son, a prematurely retired pr...
Just Tell Me What You Want
1980
Novel, Screenplay, Producer
A television producer woman tries to let down her overbearing boyfriend who is her boss. She wants to marry with a young writer.
Funny Lady
1975
Screenplay
Famous singer Fanny Brice has divorced her first husband Nicky Arnstein. During the Great Depression she has trouble finding work as an artist, but me...
The Borrowers
1973
Writer
An eight-year-old boy discovers a family of tiny people, only a few inches tall, living beneath the floorboards of a Victorian country home.
40 Carats
1973
Writer
After an overnight fling with a man nearly 20 years her junior while vacationing in Greece, Ann Stanley returns to New York assuming she'll never see ...
Travels with My Aunt
1972
Screenplay
At his mother's funeral, stuffy bank clerk Henry Pulling meets his Aunt Augusta, an elderly eccentric with more-than-shady dealings who pulls him alon...
Cabaret
1972
Screenplay
Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a ce...
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1969
Screenplay, Theatre Play
A headstrong young teacher in a private school in 1930s Edinburgh ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable 12-year-old charges with he...
Marnie
1964
Screenplay
Marnie is a thief, a liar, and a cheat. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, catches on to her routine kleptomania, she finds herself being blackmailed.
Wives and Lovers
1963
Theatre Play
Husband and wife Bill and Bertie Austin and their daughter live in a low-rent apartment. He's a struggling writer, at least until agent Lucinda Ford b...