John Sacret Young is an author, producer, director, and screenwriter primarily in television. Young has been nominated for seven Emmys and seven Writers Guild of America Awards, winning two WGA Awards.
He is perhaps best known for co-creating along with William F. Broyles Jr.,
China Beach-Overview of television series:Created by William Broyles, Jr. and John Sacret Young, the series looks at the Vietnam War from a unique perspective: that of the women, military and civilian, who were present during the conflict...
, the critically acclaimed ABC drama series about the medics and nurses during the Vietnam War. For his work on the show, Young received five Emmy and four Writer’s Guild Award nominations.
John Sacret Young is an author, producer, director, and screenwriter primarily in television. Young has been nominated for seven Emmys and seven Writers Guild of America Awards, winning two WGA Awards.
He is perhaps best known for co-creating along with William F. Broyles Jr.,
China Beach-Overview of television series:Created by William Broyles, Jr. and John Sacret Young, the series looks at the Vietnam War from a unique perspective: that of the women, military and civilian, who were present during the conflict...
, the critically acclaimed ABC drama series about the medics and nurses during the Vietnam War. For his work on the show, Young received five Emmy and four Writer’s Guild Award nominations. The WGA honored him with the Award for an episode he also directed.
The West Wing brought him two more Emmy and two more WGA nominations.
Young won his second WGA Award for the mini-series, A Rumor of War.
He's also been honored with two
Christopher AwardThe Christopher Award are presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, motion pictures and television specials which affirm the highest values of the human spirit.-Judging process:...
s for the Academy Award-nominated feature film
TestamentA testament is a document that the author has sworn to be true.Testament can refer to:* Old Testament, also known as the Tanakh, the holy scriptures of Judaism and Christianity...
starring Jane Alexander and Kevin Costner and the film
RomeroRomero is a film depicting the life of assassinated Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, played by Raul Julia. Richard Jordan played the role of Romero's close friend and fellow martyred priest Rutilio Grande, and actors Ana Alicia and Harold Gould also appeared in the film.Romero was the first...
with Raul Julia.
Young's the holder of a Golden Globe, a
Peabody AwardThe George Foster Peabody Awards are annual, international awards for excellence in radio and television broadcasting. First awarded in 1941 for programs from the previous year, they are one of the oldest honors in electronic media...
as well, and John’s original mini-series about the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
,
Thanks of a Grateful Nation, was honored with his fifth
Humanitas PrizeThe is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious cinema or TV...
nomination and second win.
He began his television work on the Emmy winning Best Drama series, Police Story, and has since created, written, or Executive Produced five additional series and multiple mini-series and movies of the week.
Young’s recently published book, REMAINS: Non-Viewable was a Los Angeles Times best seller. Elmore Leonard said of it: "Young writes so well his memoir works as a novel. He brings to life real people in dramatic situations, with indelible grace and the restless energy of emotions that even the passage of time cannot quell." Scott Turow wrote, “…a compelling portrait of many worlds—Yankee New England, Vietnam and Hollywood—and of high adventures, antic moments, and the cycles of love and grief. Every page is wrought with indelible grace and the restless energy of emotions that even the passage of time cannot quell." The LA Times’ Susan Salter Reynolds said, "Every family should be blessed by a historian as compassionate and wise as JSY." And, Steve Weinberg from The San Francisco Chronicle told his readers, "Like the rest of the memoir, the title is poignant, subtle and brilliant.... Want to study compelling prose? Read Young. Almost every sentence is perfectly crafted.... This book contains something for just about any thinking reader."
In reviewing John’s first novel THE WEATHER TOMORROW, The New Yorker called him “a writer of effortless dexterity and a true, unaffected originality . . . The story he tells cuts right to the bone.” Newsweek’s Jean Strause heralded it, "...Exceptionally fine first novel." Art Seidenbaum of the Los Angeles Times said, "This is serious, touching, original fiction." And The Los Angeles Herald Examiner’s Digby Diehl proclaimed, “"A brilliant debut by an L.A. novelist. Young is the first new voice in decades that might be compared to the young William Faulkner...What a rarity to discover a new Los Angeles writer whose control of language is precise and confident, whose sentences sparkle and glide and zoom."
Presently, partnered as Executive Producer with Robert Redford, he’s written Generations, a pilot for TNT, which he will also direct.
Credits:
Generations (Writer, Executive Producer, Director, 2008)
Quarterlife (Director, 2008)
The West Wing (Writer, Producer: 2004 – 2006)
Deceit (Writer, Executive Producer, Director, 2005)
King of the World (Writer, Director, Executive Producer: 2000)
Adapted from David Remnick’s acclaimed New Yorker article, King of the World, examines the life of Cassius Clay, the man the world came to know and honor as Muhammad Ali.
Sirens (Writer, Director, Executive Producer: 1999)
A couple of cops assume a white woman, making out with a black man, is being raped and shoot to kill. The woman sets out to bring the cops to justice, but it’s her word against theirs.
Thanks of a Grateful Nation (Writer, Executive Producer: 1998)
As thousands of Desert Storm vets develop medical problems, they discover the military has something to hide. Groups of servicemen and women, as well as members of Congress, join forces to uncover the truth.
Keys (Writer, Director, Executive Producer: 1994)
Police investigate the random murder/assault/child kidnapping of a seemingly average family. Marg Helgenberger, pre-CSI, seeks clues to the motive behind the crime and the whereabouts of the missing child. At the same time she is haunted by her own similar tragedy.
A Rumor of War (Writer: 1980)
Adapted from Phillip Caputo’s best-selling memoirs, the award-winning film examines the tragic loss of innocence when a young Marine Lieutenant is brought up on charges for giving an order, which led to the death of several Vietnamese civilians. Found innocent, but in many respects he believed of himself and maybe of the war itself that he was legally innocent but morally guilty.
China Beach (Co-Creator, Writer, Director, Executive Producer: 1988 –1991)
Other Credits:
Orleans (Co-creator, executive producer, writer, director) starring Larry Hagman.
Level 9 (Co-created by Michael Connelly, executive producer, writer, director)
VR 5 (Executive producer, writer, director)
Fire on the Mountain, MOW from a book by Edward Abbey (Writer, executive producer) starring Buddy Ebsen and Ron Howard
Champions: A Love Story, a GE Theater Presentation (Writer, producer)
Special Olympics (MOW, writer, also a book)
Police Story (Writer)
The Fitzpatricks (Creator, Writer, Executive Consultant)