Robert M. Harling III (born November 12, 1951) is an American writer, producer and film director.
Biography
Early life Harling was born in 1951 in Dothan, Alabama, one of three children of Robert M. Harling Jr (1923–2019) and Margaret Jones Harling (1923–2013).Blanchard-St. Denis Funeral Home, Obituary: Margaret Jones Harling, Margaret Jones Harling ObituaryKim Hubbard, Robert Harling, Author of a Hit Comedy Based on a Family Tragedy, People, Vol. 29, No. 3, January 25, 1988Julia Reed, The Interview: Robert Harling, Garden & Gun, December 2012 – January 2013 He graduated from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana and obtained a Juris Doctor from Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.Brooks Barnes, Sweet Tea and Tart Women, The New York Times, February 29, 2012 While in law school, he sang in a band which performed in New Orleans on weekends.
Career
Following graduation from law school, Harling moved to New York to pursue an acting career. He auditioned for bit parts in plays and television commercials as well as working as a ticket seller for Broadway shows.
After the death of his younger sister, Susan, in 1985 due to diabetes, Harling wrote a short story and adapted it into the play Steel Magnolias,Anne McCracken, Mary Semel, A broken heart still beats: after your child dies, Hazelden Publishing, 2000, p. 87 Jeremy Kinser, Steel Magnolias Back in Bloom, The Advocate, October 25, 2012 which was produced off-Broadway in 1987 to great acclaim and was translated into 17 languages.
Harling also wrote the screenplay for the film version of the play that was produced in 1989.Karen Hollinger, In the company of women: contemporary female friendship films, Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1998, p. 75 Tara McPherson, Reconstructing Dixie: Race, Gender, and Nostalgia in the Imagined South, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2003, p. 159 Tanner Transky, Robert Harling: The Man Who Loves Women, Entertainment Weekly, April 13, 2012 He played a small role in the film as a minister.
Harling wrote more screenplays: Soapdish (1991), The First Wives Club (1996), and Laws of Attraction (2004); he also worked as an uncredited script doctor on a number of films. Harling also wrote and directed the sequel to Terms of Endearment titled The Evening Star (1996).Peter C. Rollins, The Columbia companion to American history on film, New York City: Columbia University Press, 2007 p. 494
In the spring of 2012, he served as writer and producer of the TV show GCB. In the same year, it was reported that Harling was adapting Soapdish into a musical.Lisa Rosen, Robert Harling, Darren Star breathe life into 'GCB', The Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2012
Personal life He is Presbyterian and openly gay. He owns the Oaklawn Plantation in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Filmography
Writer 1989 Steel Magnolias 1990 Steel Magnolias (TV pilot) 1991 Soapdish 1992 Coiffure pour dames 1996 The First Wives Club 1996 The Evening Star 2004 Laws of Attraction 2012 GCB
Producer 1997 A Smile Like Yours 2012 GCB
Director 1996 The Evening Star
References