Biography
Dalene Young (June 29, 1939 — May 9, 2025) was an American screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor. She was best known for writing the coming-of-age comedy-drama Little Darlings (1980), featuring Tatum O’Neal and Kristy McNichol, and the Mary Steenburgen-starring drama Cross Creek (1983). Young received a Daytime Emmy nomination for co-writing the Showtime children’s special Locked in Silence (1999) and landed a Christopher Award and a Humanitas Prize nomination for her work on the NBC tel...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Pig
2021
as Jezebel
A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregon wilderness must visit Portland to find the mysterious person who stole his beloved foraging pig.
Baby Luv
2000
as Elizabeth
A story centered around Lee, a young woman whose considerable charm masks an almost innate desire to destroy - especially when it comes to the man who...
Baby Luv
2000
Writer, Theatre Play
A story centered around Lee, a young woman whose considerable charm masks an almost innate desire to destroy - especially when it comes to the man who...

The Last Dance
2000
Writer
A retired school teacher is reminded of her past after she befriends with one of her former students, Todd Cope.

Going Home
2000
Co-Producer, Teleplay
A daughter must choose between her career as a book editor at a high powered New York firm, or return home to care for her aging father whose mental s...

Silk Hope
1999
Teleplay, Co-Producer
Frannie Vaughn (Fawcett) comes back home after being away a long time, only to find that her mother has died. She also finds out that her sister, Nata...

Locked in Silence
1999
Writer
A story of a young boy who becomes an elective mute after witnessing what he believes to be the killing by his older brother of a teenage boy. The you...

Cab to Canada
1998
Teleplay, Co-Producer
Fact-based story about a Pasadena cab driver who picks up what he believes is a routine fare, an elderly woman on her way to a funeral. However, the w...

Evidence of Blood
1998
Teleplay
When a brilliant crime writer investigates a 40-year-old murder, he confronts a small town's worst fears.

Journey of the Heart
1997
Writer, Co-Producer
Janice is the subject of the town gossips for four reasons: she wears too much lipstick, her hair is too big, she is a single-mother and her two child...

The Baby-Sitters Club
1995
Screenplay
Seven junior-high-school girls organize a daycare camp for children while at the same time experiencing classic adolescent growing pains.

Is There Life Out There?
1994
Writer
Lily Marshall has a loving, supportive husband, two great kids and an unfulfilled dream: to return to college and get the degree she always wanted. "I...

The Yarn Princess
1994
Writer, Co-Producer
Margaret, who has certain mental disabilities, struggles when her husband, Jake, is diagnosed with schizophrenia and the authorities wish to take her ...

A Message from Holly
1992
Teleplay, Co-Producer
Kate is a high-powered, workaholic executive who discreetly takes time off from her work to live with her artist friend Holly, who reveals she has ter...

Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wanted
1992
Writer
A Down-syndrome boy left in an institute by his parents. Ginny works in the institute and wants to have Jonathan but has to fight the system and the p...

Living a Lie
1991
Teleplay, Story, Co-Producer
Way out west, it's a moral dilemma for Jill Eikenberry. Her character, manicurist Joanne Johnson, is the kind of woman who stands by her man. She and ...

I Love You Perfect
1989
Writer, Co-Producer
A woman, her lover and her best friend cope with the tragedy of her misdiagnosed medical condition.

Sonny Boy
1989
as Doc Wallace
A small-town car thief and his transgender wife come across an abandoned infant; they amputate his tongue and train him for a life in crime.

The People Across the Lake
1988
Story, Co-Producer, Teleplay
In an effort to get away from the city and all its crime, Chuck Yoman and his family move to a big old house in a peaceful lakeside town. The discover...

Why Me?
1984
Writer
An Air Force nurse about to leave the service is badly disfigured about her face in a car accident in which she also loses her baby.

Cross Creek
1983
Screenplay
In the 1930s, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida's backwaters to write in peace. She feels bothered by affectionate men, editors and confused n...

Will There Really Be a Morning?
1983
as Hairdresser
This is the story of actress Frances Farmer, her struggles with mental illness and involuntary confinement in an insane asylum.

Will There Really Be a Morning?
1983
Writer
This is the story of actress Frances Farmer, her struggles with mental illness and involuntary confinement in an insane asylum.
Little Darlings
1982
Characters
Two young girls from different sides of the tracks compete to see who will be first to lose their virginity while at camp.
Pale Horse Pale Rider
1981
Writer
Katherine Ann Porter's story of a young woman's dreams of death. The Pale Rider fills her dreams along with her lover.

Marilyn: The Untold Story
1980
Teleplay
The story of the life and times of the legendary Hollywood blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe, from her meteoric rise to stardom to her marriages and un...

Little Darlings
1980
Screenplay
Two 15-year-old girls from different sides of the tracks compete to see who will be first to lose their virginity while at camp.

The Plutonium Incident
1980
Screenplay
A plutonium plant employee becomes the target of management, as well as union harassment, when she tries to blow the whistle on the company for neglig...

Can You Hear the Laughter? The Freddie Prinze Story
1979
Teleplay
The true and tragic story of a very young and very talented comedian from the 70's whose sudden rise to fame had some of its benefits -- and some of i...

Teen Lust
1978
as Mother
Kirsten Baker and Leslie Cedarquist are the Girls Next Door in this buoyant sexploitationer. The ladies move in bag and baggage into a sleepy suburban...

Deadman's Curve
1978
Screenplay
Things were cool. Chicks were pretty. Waves were groovy. Cars had muscle. Jan and Dean rode their wave to the top of the pop charts. Then, in 1966, on...

Christmas Miracle in Caufield, U.S.A.
1977
Writer
Based on the true story of coal miners who became trapped underground in a cave-in on Christmas Eve, 1951.

Panic in Echo Park
1977
Writer
A young doctor tries to convince everyone about an impending epidemic, but he is accused of creating panic.

Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn
1977
Story
In this sequel to Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, Alexander's story is told in both the past and the present. Alexander's parents send him away f...

Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway
1976
Writer
15-year-old Dawn runs away from what she feels is an intolerable home life. In the big city, she ends up turning to prostitution when she is unable to...

Juke Box Racket
1960
as Betty
Mario, a gangster, takes the fifth amendment when being questioned by the Senate Sub Committee on his connection with racketeering within the juke box...