Stewart Stern's screen adaptations and original screenplays focus on ordinary people whose actions and decisions have an emotional price. Stern deals most profoundly with shy, sensitive, tormented characters who are either deprived of love or unable to love. Self-expression for these protagonists is difficult, but it is necessary for their psychic survival, confronted as they often are by guilt or death.

The nephew of Adolph Zukor and a cousin to the Loew family, Stewart Stern seemed destined to play a part in the film world. His father was a doctor and artist in New York, where Stern was born. Stern grew up in New York and was enrolled in the Ethical Cultural schools until 1940. After attending the University of Iowa, Stern entered the military; his World War II experiences form the background for several of his film scripts, from his earliest, Teresa (1951), to Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973). Stern...