Higgins in 1974 sitting on a hot tub built for him by famed carpenter Harrison Ford
July 30, 1941– Colin Higgins is a much loved director & screenwriter. He was supposed to have been a real sweetheart. People in the business we call show seemed to have adored him. He is responsible for one of the most influential films of my youth, Harold & Maude (1971), & I love him for that.
Born on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia to an Australian mother & American father, Higgins moved with his family to California from Sydney in the 1950s. he attended Stanford University for a year, but he dropped out to hitchhike across the country. Higgins’ travels took him to NYC where he studied with the famous Actors Studio & then to Europe where he volunteered for the Army as the sports reporter for the military newspaper The Stars & Stripes. He eventually returned to Stanford for a degree in English & then attended film school at UCLA. During his final year, he wrote the screenplay for Harold & Maude.
Now it is considered to be one of the greatest of 1970 Hollywood films, but Harold & Maude, smartly directed by Hal Ashby, was a huge flop when it opened during the Christmas season of 1971 with little fanfare & not much advertising. The unusual story of the romance between a young man & a much, much, much older woman, played by Bud Cort & my muse Ruth Gordon, the film had an impact on people my age & it became a cult favorite around the world. Higgins’ own stage adaptation ran for just 9 performances on Broadway starring film great Janet Gaynor & gay actor Keith McDermott, but another version ran in Paris for 7 years.
Higgins went on to write &/or direct some of the most successful films of the 1970s & 1980s: Silver Streak (1976), Foul Play (1978), & especially adored by the gays: 9 To 5 (1980) & The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (1982). Higgins had planned both a sequel & a prequel to Harold & Maude. The sequel, Harold’s Story, focused on Harold’s life after Maude. The prequel would show Maude’s life before Harold & was titled Grover & Maude with a story about Maude learning how to steal cars from Grover Muldoon, the character portrayed by Richard Pryor in Higgins’ Silver Streak. Higgins planned for all the original actors to reprise their roles.
Higgins established a foundation which offers The Colin Higgins Courage Awards recognizing ordinary but remarkable individuals who have endured overwhelming hostility & hate, yet have handled themselves with the grace as they educate & enlighten others about being gay. Each winner receives $10,000 as part of their prize. The Colin Higgins Foundation also funds scholarships for gay people wanting to study film & supports HIV prevention programs in places like as Fayetteville, Arkansas & Biloxi, Mississippi.
In 1986, he had just completed a mini-series based on Shirley MacLaine‘s memoir Out On A Limb, when Higgins was taken by the plague. I wonder how many other terrific films he did not get to bring us, maybe something tasty & inventive in Netflix. Fucking HIV.
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