David Mamet

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Lore & Background

Mamet was born in 1947 in Chicago to Lenore June (née Silver), a teacher, and Bernard Morris Mamet, a labor attorney. He is Jewish, with paternal grandparents who were Polish Jews. He described himself as a 'red diaper baby' and worked early jobs as a busboy at Chicago's London House and The Second City, as an actor, editor for Oui magazine, and a cab driver. He was educated at the progressive Francis W. Parker School and at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. At a 2006 fundraiser, Mamet stated, 'My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.' After a move to Chicago's North Side, he met theater director Robert Sickinger and began working at Sickinger's Hull House Theatre, beginning his lifelong involvement with theater. Mamet is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross. His plays American Buffalo and Speed-the-Plow were included on Harold Bloom's list of works constituting the Western Canon. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2002 and received the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for Grand Master of American Theater in 2010. In 2019 he returned to the London West End with a new play, Bitter Wheat, at the Garrick Theatre, starring John Malkovich. In 2023 it was announced that a new Mamet play, titled Henry Johnson, was expected to debut in Los Angeles starring Shia LaBeouf. Mamet's first film work was as a screenwriter; his first produced screenplay was the 1981 adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice. He received an Academy Award nomination for The Verdict (1982) and a second for Wag the Dog (1997). He made his film directing debut with his screenplay House of Games (1987), which won the Golden Osella Best Screenplay award at the 1987 Venice Film Festival. He wrote and directed Heist (2001), his biggest commercial success. He created and produced the CBS series The Unit (2006–2009).

Reader's Guide

David Mamet's significance lies in his distinctive contributions to American theater and film. His play Glengarry Glen Ross won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984, and both American Buffalo and Speed-the-Plow were recognized by Harold Bloom as part of the Western Canon. His screenwriting credits include The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Verdict (1982), The Untouchables (1987), Hoffa (1992), Wag the Dog (1997), and Hannibal (2001). Mamet himself wrote the screenplay for the 1992 adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross, adding an additional part (including the monologue 'Coffee's for closers') for Alec Baldwin. As a director, his films include House of Games (1987), Homicide (1991), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), and Heist (2001), his biggest commercial success. His books include On Directing Film (1991), a commentary on film-making; The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture (2011); and Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood (2023). Mamet continues to work with an informal repertory company including William H. Macy, Joe Mantegna, and Rebecca Pidgeon. In 2023, reports emerged that Mamet would direct and co-write a new film titled Assassination, his first film since 2008.

Did You Know?

• Mamet described himself as a 'red diaper baby' because his parents were communists.
• He credited the Chicago Public Library as his alma mater, saying he got his educational foundation in the third-floor reading room under a Coca-Cola sign.
• Mamet wrote the screenplay for the 1992 film adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross and added the 'Coffee's for closers' monologue for Alec Baldwin.
• He rewrote the script for Ronin under the pseudonym 'Richard Weisz'.
• Mamet's play Bitter Wheat (2019) starred John Malkovich at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End.