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Writing
partners Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. have co-authored numerous
box office hits over the past 20 years. Their credits include:
Legal Eagles, starring Robert Redford and Debra Winger; Top
Gun, starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis; The Secret
of My Success, with Michael J. Fox; Turner & Hooch, starring
Tom Hanks; Dick Tracy, starring Warren Beatty and Madonna;
and Anaconda, starring Jennifer Lopez, Eric Stoltz and Jon
Voight. Their last film writing credit was The Flintstones
in Viva Rock Vegas.
Cash, a native of Grand Rapids, received his B.A. in English
from MSU in 1970 followed by a M.A. in Television and Radio
in 1972. For many years he taught writing and film history
at MSU and supported a writing award named in his honor. Jim
Cash died in 1999.
Epps, who grew up
in the Detroit area, received his B.A. in English from MSU
in 1972. While a student, he worked as a film critic for
the State News and founded and directed the pathbreaking
and critically praised Mid-West Film Festival held in East
Lansing in the early 1970s. Today Jack Epps lives with his
family in Santa Monica, California, where he continues to
write for film and television, and teaches at the USC Film
School.
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They began their writing relationship while MSU students and
wrote their first story together in the MSU Union Grill in
1975. Soon afterwards Epps moved to Hollywood, but the separation
did not impede their ability to write successful screenplays.
Probably one of the most unique writing relationships in the
history of Hollywood, Cash lived in East Lansing, Michigan,
while Epps live in Santa Monica, California. They collaborated
by computer across country and only saw each other face to
face a handful of times.
To view Special Collections' holdings of Jim Cash and Jack
Epps' work, please click here.
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