Film & TV / Press & broadcasting / Literature
Kurt Luedtke
1939–2020
· journalist, screenwriter
Detroit Free Press executive editor turned Oscar-winning screenwriter of Out of Africa, who wrote Absence of Malice from his newsroom experience.
- Born
Grand Rapids, Michigan- Died
Royal Oak, Michigan
aged 80- Detroit years
- 1965–2020
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Kurt Luedtke was born in Grand Rapids, studied at Brown University and Northwestern's Medill journalism school, and worked as a reporter at the Miami Herald before joining the Detroit Free Press in 1965. He started on general assignment and rose quickly; at 33 he became the paper's executive editor, running the newsroom in the Albert Kahn–designed Free Press Building on Lafayette Boulevard. In 1978 he left journalism to write for the movies. His first screenplay, Absence of Malice (1981), directed by Sydney Pollack, drew on newsroom ethics, the damage a careless story can do, and earned an Oscar nomination. His second, Out of Africa (1985), also for Pollack, won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay among the film's seven Oscars. He wrote one more film, Random Hearts (1999), and remained a Detroit-area resident until his death in Royal Oak in 2020.
Highlights
- Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Out of Africa (1985)
- Oscar nomination for Absence of Malice (1981)
- Executive editor of the Detroit Free Press at 33
- Detroit Free Press staffer 1965–1978
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1965–1978
Detroit Free Press Building
Closed · 1925–1998
Albert Kahn's 1925 home of the Detroit Free Press, where Luedtke rose to executive editor. The paper moved out in 1998; the building reopened in 2020 as The Press/321 with apartments, offices and shops.