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Oscar-winning actor from
An Officer and a Gentleman
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May 30, 2008
Zack watched his bag loop a second rotation around the baggage carousel. Nothing in that large gray Navy-issue duffel but a reminder of his years of loneliness. A cramped captain’s stateroom as squadron commander aboard a succession of aircraft carriers cruising the Mediterranean Sea. Endless hours at the gunwales of the floating cities, mourning his wife and missing their daughter.
Fortunately, the days were punctuated by merciful minutes of supercharged revenge, conducting aerial sorties with his squadron against the Taliban, which had sheltered Bin Laden and his fellow 9/11 plotters. With every kill, he was waging a personal war. The 9/11 attack, coming less than a month after Paula’s tragic death, hit America’s Favorite Son harder than most. His home had been attacked, then his homeland, causing him to conflate the two events. A victim of childhood abuse, his mind worked that way. From boyhood, it had been him against life, and life had dealt a near-death blow to him with the loss of his wife, and with his daughter’s decision to deal with her grief by retreating
into herself.
I grew up wanting to be a novelist.
My uncle was a best-selling author and as
a little boy I dreamed of following his lead.
In second grade, I started writing short stories.
My English teacher called me
“The Master of the Metaphor.”
But that was only the beginning…
“Since 1982 I wanted to write a sequel to An Officer and a Gentleman, but everything I came up with felt redundant. If I was going to write a sequel, it would need to lend new insight into these incredible characters. If the first story was deemed a classic, I had to aim that high again.
But after I had a daughter, I realized that Fathers and Daughters share a special type of love story…
Facing retirement, Zack Mayo must come to terms with the end of a heroic journey and his failed relationship with his daughter. At the same time, Shannon Mayo must conquer her own demons, if she wants to fly jets like her father.
To achieve their dreams, both father and daughter must face the secrets they buried in their hearts when Shannon’s mother tragically died.
Thirty-five years after the first story captivated film audiences worldwide, Zack Mayo faces a different kind of struggle. His beloved wife Paula died tragically ten years ago, severely impacting his life and the life of their teenage daughter, Shannon. After turning to drugs, Shannon disappears, then surprises Zack as a student in his last class as head instructor of jet school. An old mentor returns to challenge father and daughter to face their “secrets of the heart” before it’s too late.
Oscar-winning actor from
An Officer and a Gentleman
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A Brilliant Story of Struggle
and Redemption Written by
Academy-Nominated Screenwriter Douglas Day Stewart
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