Jeremy Larner, 'The Candidate's Oscar-winning screenwriter, dead at 88

Jeremy Larner, famous for his screenwriting in The Candidate (1972), has passed away at the age of 88.

The tragic news of the renowned American author, poet, journalist, and speechwriter’s passing came out on March 6, 2026, ten days after his demise on February 24.

His son Jesse Larner informed The New York Times about the death of his Oscar-winning dad, sharing that he embraced death in a nursing facility in Oakland, California.

The Drive, He Said writer had been struggling with Parkinson’s disease since 2013 and received his lymphoma diagnosis in January of this year; however, the exact cause of his death is yet to be revealed.

Hailing from Olean, New York, Larner first took a degree from Brandeis University in 1958, then he pursued his passion and wrote many novels throughout the 1960s.

His debut novel was 1964’s Drive, He Said, which fascinated co-writer/director Jack Nicholson to an extent that he released a movie of the same name in 1971.

Larner also had an accomplished career as a journalist; he wrote for Life, The Paris Review, and Harpers.

In addition to the success in film and press, he served as a speechwriter for Eugene McCarthy for his presidential campaign in 1968 and sought inspiration for his book Nobody Knows: Reflections on the McCarthy Campaign of 1968. In 1969, Harpers published the book in parts.

Notably, Larner wrote the Michael Ritchie-directed film The Candidate after getting influence from McCarthy’s presidential campaign.

It is pertinent to mention that Jeremy Larner received an Academy Award in the category of the Best Original Screenplay for the 1972’s The Candidate.