Alice Arlen, a screenwriter whose credits included “Silkwood,” “Alamo Bay” and “A Thief of Time,” died Monday night at her home in New York City. She was 75.
Arlen, who co-wrote the Academy Award-nominated “Silkwood” screenplay with Nora Ephron, died following a long illness.
Born in Chicago in 1940, Arlen graduated from Radcliffe College before returning to her hometown to become a writer for the local CBS station.
In addition to her screenwriting, Arlen wrote a biography of her great aunt, titled “Cissy Patterson,” in 1966, and completed a biography of her aunt Alicia, “The Huntress: The Adventures, Escapades and Triumphs of Alicia Patterson: Aviatrix, Sportswoman, Journalist, Publisher,” last spring. The latter book will be published later this year.
Arlen was married twice. She had three children with her first husband, editor and former Chicago Sun-Times publisher James Hoge. She married her second husband, author and former New Yorker writer Michael J. Arlen, in 1972.
A past president, board member and former director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, which provides grants to support in-depth writing and research by journalists, Arlen was also a supporter of the Central Park Conservancy.
Arlen is survived by her husband Michael, her three siblings; her three children. and her four stepchildren.