Screenwriter of ‘Night Moves’

Alan Sharp, 79, a screenwriter known for his dark perspective and complicated plotting in the 1975 Arthur Penn thriller “Night Moves” and other films, died Feb. 8 at his daughter’s home in Los Angeles after a long illness, Creative Artists Agency announced.

Critics said the Scottishborn Sharp also smartly adapted Sir Walter Scott’s swashbuckling “Rob Roy” to the big screen in 1995, with Liam Neeson portraying the Scottish folk hero.

In the 1970s, Sharp displayed an affinity for westerns, writing the screenplay for “The Hired Hand,” a laconic film that Peter Fonda starred in and directed, and other movies that included the stark and violent “Ulzana’s Raid,” which featured Burt Lancaster as an idealistic cavalry lieutenant.

Sharp once called “Ulzana’s Raid,” written as an allegory against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, his favorite movie project.

Born Jan. 12, 1934, to a single mother, he was adopted as an infant by a shipyard worker and his wife. At 14, Sharp dropped out of school to work in the shipyards.

After a series of odd jobs, he spent two years in the British national service and then moved to London, intent on becoming a writer.

His first novel, “A Green Tree in Gedde” (1965), was banned by some libraries in Scotland for its sexual content. He followed it two years later with “The Wind Shifts” before turning to Hollywood and screenwriting.

Sharp worked on about 30 movie and television projects between 1963 and 2010, the year he wrote the teleplay for the miniseries “Ben Hur.” He wrote and directed “Little Treasure” (1985), starring Margot Kidder, and penned the conspiracy drama “The Osterman Weekend” (1995).