Biography
Paul D. Zimmerman (also credited as Paul Zimmerman) was an American screenwriter, film critic and activist. Born in New York City, he worked as a film critic for Newsweek magazine from 1967 to 1975 and contributed to television, including episodes of Sesame Street. He also wrote three books: The Marx Brothers at the Movies (1968), The Year the Mets Lost Last Place (1969) and The Open Man (1970).
Zimmerman wrote the screenplay for The King of Comedy (1982), directed by Martin Scorsese. He received co-writing credits on Lovers and Liars (1979) and Consuming Passions (1988). He won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for The King of Comedy. Active in the nuclear freeze movement, he founded the Bucks Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament and served as a Republican delegate to the 1984 party convention, where he was the only delegate to vote against Ronald Reagan's renomination.
Zimmerman died of colon cancer on 2 March 1993 in Princeton, New Jersey.
