Ronald Bass Although his ability to "crack" almost any story into t he conventional Aristotelian three acts and continually raise the stakes throughout has made Ronald Bass arguably the most bankable screenwriter in Hollywood, the writer values his structural abilities less than his knack for giving a film "heart" and never hesitates to go for big emotion. The Los Angeles-born Bass began writing at the age of six while bedridden with a childhood illness but initially decided on a more practical career after his college English teacher looked a t his novel "Voleur" and informed him it wouldn't get published. He graduated from Harvard Law School and began a success ful career in entertainment law, eventually rising to the l evel of partner, but the writing bug did not go away. He returned to "Voleur", working on it in the mornings before attending to his practice, and saw it published as "The Perfect Thief" in 1978. When well-known producer Jonathan Sanger optioned his third novel "The Emerald Illusion", Bass was part of the package, co-scripting the film adaptation "Code Name: Emerald" (1985), a thoroughly routine WWII thriller starring Max von Sydow and Ed Harris. By that time, Bass had already abandoned his legal career to write two screenplays for Fox at $125,000 each. Though neither would make it to the screen, his scripts for Arthur Penn's "Target" (1985), Bob Rafelson's "Black Widow" and Francis Ford Coppola's "Gardens of Stone" (both 1987) did. In collaboration with Barry Morrow, Bass enjoyed a career breakthrough as well as blockbuster success with Barry Levinson's "Rain Man" (1988), for which he shared the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He enjoyed another hit with the Julia Roberts thriller "Sleeping With the Enemy" (1991) and surprising success with his adaptation with Amy Tan of her novel "The Joy Luck Club" (1993), which gave Bass his first producing credit. His commercial streak faltered with the comedy-drama "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994), starring Meg Ryan as an alcoholic mother, but resumed with the Michelle Pfeiffer social problem picture "Dangerous Minds" (1995). Bass finished out that
