John Jay Osborn Jr.

Osborn was born in Boston on August 5, 1945.[1] His father, John Jay Sr., was a doctor at Stanford University School of Medicine; his mother was Anne (née Kidder). He was a descendant of both John Jay,[1][2] the first Chief Justice of the United States, and of railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt.[1][3] His family relocated to the Bay Area when Osborn was nine.[1] He received a Bachelor of Arts in American History from Harvard University in 1967 and graduated with a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1970.[4] He also did graduate work at Yale Law School.[5]

For his third-year writing project at Harvard Law, Osborn wrote The Paper Chase, a fictional account of one Harvard Law School student's battles with the imperious Professor Charles Kingsfield. Osborn found a publisher with the assistance of William Alfred and the book was released in 1971.[1] It was made into a film two years later, starring John Houseman and Timothy Bottoms.[6] Houseman won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as contracts professor Kingsfield.[1][7] The Paper Chase also became a television series, and Osborn wrote several of the scripts.[1][8]

After graduating from law school, Osborn clerked for Judge Max Rosenn of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1970 to 1972.[9] He was later an associate attorney with the firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.[10] Osborn taught law at the University of Miami, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the UC Berkeley School of Law,[5] and the University of San Francisco School of Law, from which he retired in 2018.[3]

Osborn's third novel, The Associates, was adapted into a short-lived television series starring Martin Short and Wilfrid Hyde-White.[5] He was also one of the writers (along with Thomas A. Cohen) of the screenplay for the 2010 film version of the 1983 novel The River Why by David James Duncan.[11] His final book, Listen to the Marriage, was published in 2018.[1][12]

Osborn married Emilie Heffron Sisson in 1968.[1][3] She was a Radcliffe College graduate who worked as a physician with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and they remained married until his death.[1] Together, they had three children, Sam, Meredith (who also attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School) and Shef.[13]

Osborn died on October 19, 2022, at his home in San Francisco. He was 77 years old and suffered from squamous cell cancer prior to his death.[1]

Novels

• The Paper Chase (1971)[1]
• The Only Thing I've Done Wrong (1977) ISBN 9780395251744
• The Associates (1979) ISBN 9780395270974
• The Man Who Owned New York (1981) ISBN 9780395305119
• Listen to the Marriage (2018)[1]

Scripts

• The Paper Chase (15 of 54 episodes, 1978–1986)[8]
  • "The Man Who Would Be King" (1978)[14]
  • "A Day in the Life of..." (1978)[15]
  • "Moot Court" (1978)[16]
  • "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (1978)[17]
  • "Scavenger Hunt" (1979)[18]
  • "Outline Fever" (1983)[19][20]
  • "Birthday Party" (1983)[19][21]
  • "Plague of Locusts" (1983)[19][22]
  • "Snow" (1983)[19][23]
  • "Mrs. Hart" (1984)[19][24]
  • "War of the Wonks" (1984)[19][25]
  • "Billy Pierce" (1984) (teleplay only)[19][26]
  • "Decisions: Part 1" (1985)[27]
  • "Decisions: Part 2" (1985)[27]
  • "Honor" (1986)
• L.A. Law (1 episode, 1986–1994)[1]
  • "December Bribe" (1987)
• Spenser: For Hire (1 episode, 1985–1988)
  • "Substantial Justice" (1988)[28]
• The River Why (2010, with Thomas A. Cohen)[8]

• John Jay Osborn Jr. at IMDb