Queen of the TV-Movie Screenwriters Dalene Young, 85, died on May 9. Young started her career as an actress and nightclub singer, but by the 1970s she had turned to writing. Her first assignment was 1976’s Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, which established her; more work came quickly. Young specialized in the After-School Special brand of social-problem movie (Panic in Echo Park, Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wanted) and celebrity bios (Deadman’s Curve, Can You Hear the Laughter? The Story of Freddie Prinz, Marilyn: The Untold [sic!] Story, Will There Really Be a Morning?). Her biggest hit was Little Darlings (1980), with Tatum O’Neal, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristy McNichol, about summer-camp girls out to Become Women (it was also made into a 1982 TV series). Young also wrote the feature films Cross Creek and The Baby-Sitters Club. Young is survived by her husband, director Robert Martin Carroll.
