Robert Caswell

July 13, 1946–October 29, 2006

Caswell, a professional writer since the age of 21, started writing for television for the mid-1960s game show Everybody's Talking, hosted by Reg Grundy. This led to a career writing, in his words, "whatever was made on television in those days", including Number 96, Certain Women, Bluey and The Sullivans.

He co-wrote the comedy script for Lasse Hallstrom's documentary ABBA: The Movie (1977), and wrote Jimmy Dancer (1980), an acclaimed play from the ABC's Spring and Fall anthology, starring Garry McDonald as a funny radio announcer who is diagnosed with cancer. After countless scripts, Caswell considered this his first important work.

In a bid for more creative control, Caswell formed his own production company, Glasshouse Pictures, with some idealistic notions. "We want to talk about what's really happening," he explained. "The sorts of things that people pretend aren't happening here." The popular miniseries Shout! The Story of Johnny O'Keefe (1985) was one of his first projects.

Going back to basics, his next big screenplay retold the story of baby Azaria, Australia's most famous crime story of the time: Evil Angels (1988), starring Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain. It won five Australian Film Institute awards, including best film and adapted screenplay (for Caswell and director Fred Schepisi), and was an international box-office success.

This prompted Caswell to move to Hollywood, writing the screenplays for The Doctor (1991), A Far Off Place (1993), and many others that were contracted, but -- to his frustration -- never produced.

He was also artistic director for the Sundance Lab, working with emerging screenwriters. After 10 years of unproduced screenplays, Caswell's comeback was the HBO telemovie Something the Lord Made (2004), about black and white heart surgeons Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) and Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman), who overcame social mores to work together in the 1930s. It won Caswell almost as many awards as Scales of Justice, including a Christopher Award, for a work that "affirms the highest values of the human spirit". Perhaps it is a happy accident that the last produced screenplay from Caswell, who wrote so much about misery and injustice, told an inspiring story.

He soon returned to Australia, where he was writing a project about the Bali bombings. At the same time, he was working on Sony's Return From the Dead, based on another true story about a pediatrician who, after one experience, becomes a believer in the afterlife.

Caswell is survived by his wife Liz, father Cas, daughters Louise, Mary Jane and Rebecca, grandchildren Liam, Holly and Emily, and brother Don.

Robert and Liz first met Kaliji in Malibu. From the first satsanga, it was magical. Robert experienced the 'laughing kriyas' for over one hour. The next morning he called the ashrama and said, "What happened? All I know is that I met Kaliji and suddenly laughed for one hour. Now I am transformed."