Alan Trustman, a Harvard-educated lawyer who moved to Hollywood and wrote the screenplays for the 1968 films “Bullitt” and “The Thomas Crown Affair,” has died. He was 95 years old.
Trustman died on February 5 at a nursing home in Miami, his son John told The New York Times.
Before entering the film industry, Trustman built a career as a corporate lawyer in Boston. Born December 16, 1930, in Brookline, Massachusetts, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, received a history degree from Harvard University in 1952, and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1955. He then joined the Boston law firm of Nutter, McClennen & Fish, where his father was a partner, and eventually became a partner himself.
His path to Hollywood began almost by chance. Trustman was frustrated after seeing what he thought was a bad movie at a drive-in and challenged himself to write a better story. He worked on weekends and developed the script that became The Thomas Crown Affair, a stylish heist film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.
Trustman soon wrote another McQueen vehicle, Bullitt. The film is a police thriller set in San Francisco and is memorable for its famous car chase through the city’s rugged streets. The film, based on Robert L. Fish’s novel Mute Witness, helped establish McQueen’s cool, stoic on-screen persona.
Trustman also wrote “They Call Me Mr. Tibbs!,” a sequel to “In the Heat of the Night,” starring Sidney Poitier, as well as subsequent films such as “Lady Ice” and “Hit!.”
After a relatively short stint in Hollywood, Trustman went on to venture into gambling operations in Miami and currency trading in Switzerland. He also wrote the 1992 thriller novel Father’s Day.
He is survived by his wife, psychiatrist Dr. Barbara Buchwald, a son, a daughter, and 11 grandchildren.
