TOBACK, JAMES

TOBACK, JAMES (1944– ), U.S. writer, screenwriter-director, and producer. Born in New York City, Toback was educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1966) and Columbia University (M.A., 1967). He served as an instructor in English at the City College of the City University of New York and wrote JIM: The Author's Self-Centered Memoir on the Great Jim Brown (1971). He was also the author of a sports column appearing   in Lifestyle, a film critic for Dissent; and contributed articles to numerous magazines, including Esquire, Sport, the Village Voice, Harper's, and Commentary. Toback wrote the screenplays for The Gambler (1974) and Bugsy (1991) and was the writer and director for Fingers (1978), Love and Money (1982), Exposed (1983), The Pick-Up Artist (1987), The Big Bang (1989); Two Girls and a Guy (1997), Black & White (1999), Love in Paris (1999), Harvard Man (2001), and When Will I Be Loved (2004). Subsequently he wrote the screenplay for the French remake of his film Fingers, translated into English as The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005). (Amy Handelsman (2nd ed.)