---
name: "Darryl Ponicsan"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/darryl-ponicsan"
fi1m_id: "darryl-ponicsan"
imdb_id: "nm0690431"
tmdb_id: 66113
wikidata_id: "Q5225430"
roles: ["Writer"]
born: "26 May 1938"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-10-04T17:39:17.954880+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Darryl Ponicsan

## Identity

Darryl Ponicsan

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/darryl-ponicsan
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** darryl-ponicsan
- **IMDb ID:** nm0690431
- **TMDB ID:** 66113
- **Wikidata ID:** Q5225430
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Ponicsan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5225430, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0690431/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/66113

Writer. Born 26 May 1938 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer
- **Born:** 26 May 1938, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, USA
- **Active:** 1981–1985
- **Frequently works with:** [Harold Becker](https://film.one/person/harold-becker.md), [Ronny Cox](https://film.one/person/ronny-cox.md)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Ponicsan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5225430, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0690431/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/66113

## Biography

Darryl Ponicsan is an American author and screenwriter. He was born on 26 May 1938 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. He attended Muhlenberg College and Cornell University, and worked as a high-school teacher and social worker before publishing his first novel, *The Last Detail*, in 1970.

Ponicsan wrote the screenplays for the films *Taps* (1981) and *Vision Quest* (1985). He has also written screenplays for *Cinderella Liberty* (1973), *Nuts* (1987), *School Ties* (1992) and *Last Flag Flying* (2017), the last of which he co-wrote with Richard Linklater. He has published several novels and writes mystery fiction under the pen name Anne Argula. He has collaborated frequently with director Harold Becker.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Taps* (1981), Fi1m 63, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/taps.md)

## Complete filmography (12)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Last Flag Flying* (2017), Screenplay, Novel
- *Random Hearts* (1999), Screenplay
- *The Enemy Within* (1994), Teleplay
- *School Ties* (1992), Screenplay
- *The Boost* (1988), Screenplay, Co-Executive Producer
- *The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway* (1988), as Other
- *Nuts* (1987), as Bar Patron #3 · Screenplay
- *Vision Quest* (1985), Screenplay
- *Taps* (1981), Screenplay — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/film/taps.md)
- *The Girl Called Hatter Fox* (1977), Writer
- *Cinderella Liberty* (1973), Novel, Screenplay
- *The Last Detail* (1973), Novel

## Gallery

- ![Author Darryl Ponicsan (The Last Detail, Cinderella Liberty) attends a 2008 showing of the 1973 film of his 1971 novel The Last Detail at Northwest Film Forum, ](https://film.one/media/person/3729349/gallery-7829e0779c3e.jpg) Author Darryl Ponicsan (The Last Detail, Cinderella Liberty) attends a 2008 showing of the 1973 film of his 1971 novel The Last Detail at Northwest Film Forum,  — Joe Mabel, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Darryl_Ponicsan_04A.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Author Darryl Ponicsan (The Last Detail, Cinderella Liberty) attends a 2008 showing of the 1973 film of his 1971 novel The Last Detail at Northwest Film Forum, ](https://film.one/media/person/3729349/gallery-e4b698a74956.jpg) Author Darryl Ponicsan (The Last Detail, Cinderella Liberty) attends a 2008 showing of the 1973 film of his 1971 novel The Last Detail at Northwest Film Forum,  — Joe Mabel, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Darryl_Ponicsan_02A.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Author Darryl Ponicsan (The Last Detail, Cinderella Liberty) attends a 2008 showing of the 1973 film of his 1971 novel The Last Detail at Northwest Film Forum, ](https://film.one/media/person/3729349/gallery-2f71f31443a9.jpg) Author Darryl Ponicsan (The Last Detail, Cinderella Liberty) attends a 2008 showing of the 1973 film of his 1971 novel The Last Detail at Northwest Film Forum,  — Joe Mabel, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Darryl_Ponicsan_01A.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Darryl Ponicsan](https://film.one/media/person/3729349/gallery-4390c19ad220.jpg) Darryl Ponicsan — Joe Mabel, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Darryl_Ponicsan_03A.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/darryl-ponicsan