Born in Shenandoah and raised there and in Ringtown, Darryl Ponicsan has written several
novels, including Cinderella Liberty and The Last Detail. Both were
made into major motion pictures in 1973.
Cinderella
Liberty starred James Caan and
The
Last Detail starred Jack Nicholson.
Each film
was nominated for several Academy Awards. Cinderella Liberty
earned Mr. Ponicsan a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Motion Picture.
Mr. Ponicsan has written or co-written a number
of screenplays for other Hollywood movies, including
Vision Quest,
Taps,
Nuts,
Murder in the First, School Ties, and The Boost.
He also wrote the teleplay for The Enemy Within.
Recently Mr. Ponicsan did the screenplay adaptation
for the film Random Hearts,
starring Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Darryl Ponicsan is also the author of
Andoshen,
a novel written in the mid-1970's. The title is a convolution of the word
"Shenandoah". For one day in 1976, Shenandoah was officially renamed "Andoshen".