Writer and director Charles Shyer, 83, died on Dec. 27. The son of director Melville Shyer, Charles assisted Garry Marshall, and worked his way to up writing TV’s The Odd Couple. His first big hit (co-written with Nancy Meyers and Harvey Miller) was 1980’s Private Benjamin, which proved to be a huge hit. He went on to write, co-write and/or direct mostly comedies and remakes of old classics: Smokey and the Bandit, House Calls, Father of the Bride, Goin’ South, Irreconcilable Differences, Protocol, Baby Boom, The Parent Trap, and Alfie. He was married three times, including to actress to Diana Ewing and writer and director Nancy Myers, and had four children. Shyer told Script magazine that he preferred to write the projects he directed: “It's very hard as a director to, for me at least, to do other people's stuff. I know it sounds a little pretentious maybe, but I have to kind of make it my own. It's this kind of thing if an actor asks you a question, and you've written it, you know the answer. It's not like an interpretation, it's more from your heart and your soul. And that makes it easier.”
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