Australians in Hollywood : Biographical Notes

Thomas Keneally
Thomas Keneally (b. 1935) studied briefly for the priesthood before working as a teacher and, starting in 1964, a novelist. Short listed for the Booker Prize four times, he has won it once, for his “documentary novel” Schindler's Ark (1982). Keneally conceived the book in 1980, when the Jewish owner of a Beverly Hills luggage store told him about being saved from the Nazi Holocaust by the German industrialist Oskar Schindler. Keneally interviewed over 50 more such survivors before completing the book. Steven Spielberg was immediately interested in filming it; but it would take him another 10 years before he felt “mature” enough to undertake such the project. In the interim he unsuccessfully tried to persuade other directors – including Martin Scorcese and Roman Polanski – to make the film. But in 1993 Spielberg made Schindler's List himself. The film won seven Oscars, including best picture and best director.

Back