David Z. Goodman, a film and television writer who flourished in the 1970s, when he earned credits on such movies as Straw Dogs, Logan's Run and Lovers and Other Strangers, for which he received an Oscar nomination, died September 26,2011, in Oakland, Calif. He was 81.
According to news reports, the cause was a brain disorder called progressive supranuclear palsy.
Goodman, who contemplated becoming a rabbi, ultimately left his Yeshiva studies to pursue a career as a writer.
He began as a playwright, after which he worked steadily in film and television.
In the 1960s he wrote episodes of such TV dramas as The Untouchables, Naked City and Combat!
Then, in the 1970s, he became one of the most prolific screenwriters in Hollywood with movies like Straw Dogs, Lovers and Other Strangers, Farewell My Lovely, Logan's Run, Monte Walsh, Man on a Swing and March or Die.
In 1979 he wrote the made-for-television movie Freedom Road.
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