Costigan, James 1928(?)-2007

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born March 31, 1928 (some sources cite 1926), in Belvedere Gardens, near East Los Angeles, CA; died of heart failure, December 19, 2007, on Bainbridge Island, WA. Actor, playwright, and television writer. Costigan worked briefly as a stage actor and even more briefly as a playwright before settling into the medium that would offer him the greatest exposure and the most rewards—television. His television career flourished in the early years of the medium, when well-known film stars were drawn to respected anthology series such as The DuPont Show of the Month, Kraft Television Theater, and The United States Steel Hour. He received his first Emmy Award in 1959 after his original television play, "Little Moon of Alban," a story set in Ireland in the 1920s during the rebellious years following the Easter Rising, was broadcast on The Hallmark Hall of Fame; he later adapted the play for the stage. In the 1960s, when television audiences demanded the lighter entertainment of situation comedies, westerns, and police dramas, Costigan moved to Broadway as both playwright and actor, but television beckoned again when viewers revived an interest in serious drama. He wrote several original television plays and adaptations in the 1970s, winning Emmy Awards in 1975 for Love among the Ruins, a romantic period piece starring Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier, and in 1976 for the miniseries Eleanor and Franklin. Costigan received the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award of the Writers Guild of America in 1979. In the 1980s Costigan worked as a collaborator on a few feature films before slipping into a reclusive retirement on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. Costigan's other writings include an adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw," broadcast with Ingrid Bergman in the lead role on Startime in 1959, and an award-winning television movie about conflict in northern Ireland titled A War of Children (1972).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, January 10, 2008, p. B6.

New York Times, January 5, 2008, p. B10.