Lionel Chetwynd
(1940 -     )
Biography from the editors of The Internet Movie Database

Born in London, England. Moved to Canada at an early age. Growing up in Montreal and Toronto, he served with the Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment of Canada. After military service, he attended Sir George Williams University in Montreal, where he graduated valedictorian. He was then awarded a scholarship to McGill University Law School in Montreal, followed that with graduate studies in Law at Trinity College, Oxford University In 1968, Chetwynd joined the London office of Columbia Pictures, remaining four years. By then, he had begun to expand his horizons with freelance writing assignments and his first produced work, Maybe That's Your Problem, was staged in London's West End in 1971. Later that year, he wrote Bleeding Great Orchids, also staged in London and subsequently off-Broadway. While in England, Chetwynd wrote the motion picture screenplay adaptation for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), and received an Academy Award nomination and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Feature Comedy.

Among Chetwynd's other features is THE HANOI HILTON (1987), the controversial true story of American POWs in North Vietnam's infamous Hoa Lo Prison, which he wrote and directed. He followed with the Emmy-nominated NBC/GE Theatre presentation "To Heal a Nation" (1988) (TV), about the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Recent productions penned by Chetwynd include "Varian's War" (2000) (TV movie for Showtime), which he also directed, "P.T. Barnum" (1999) (an A & E miniseries), and "Tom Clancy's NetForce" (1999) (ABC miniseries). For his screenplay adaptation for the 1995 Emmy Award-winning TNT miniseries "Joseph" (1995) he received a Writers Guild of America Award Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also adapted "Jacob: A TNT Bible Story" (1994), and the Emmy Nominated "Moses" (1996).

Chetwynd's other recent credits include "Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy" (1996) (CBS miniseries); "Kissinger and Nixon" (1995) (TNT), which earned him Writers Guild and Gemini Award Nominations for Outstanding Script; "The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996) (TNT), which earned him a Cable Ace Award Nomination; "Color of Justice" (1997) (Showtime) for which he received a Writers Guild and PEN USA Literary Award Nominations. He also created and executive produced the highly acclaimed "National Desk" (1997 mini-series), a documentary and public affairs series on PBS. Chetwynd's other credits include "Children in the Crossfire" (1984) (TV) (Monte Carlo International Television Festival, and Prix D'Association Mondiale Des Amis D L'Enfance), the Emmy-nominated "Sadat" (1983) (TV) (NAACP Image Award Nomination), "Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper" (1981) (TV), "Miracle on Ice" (1981) (TV) (Christopher Award), "A Whale for the Killing" (1981) (TV), "Goldenrod" (1976), "It Happened One Christmas" (1977) (TV) (American Women in Film and Television Citation), and "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye" (1977) (TV) (Freedom Fund's George Washington Honor Medal). A naturalized U.S. citizen, Chetwynd wrote "THE AMERICAN, 1776," the official United States Bicentennial Film. In 1987, he created and wrote a tribute to the U.S. Constitution as part of the Bicentennial celebration, an event staged before members of the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court.

Chetwynd is married to motion picture, television and stage actress Gloria Carlin. They have two sons.

 Nominated for Writing (Best Screenplay adapted from another medium) 1974: THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ (w. Mordecai Richler)

1 nomination