Angelo Pizzo

After achieving fame by writing and producing the massively popular sports films Hoosiers (1986) and Rudy (1993), Angelo Pizzo fielded numerous requests to pen more inspirational sports stories. At first he feared becoming pigeonholed as the go-to sports-movie guy. But eventually he accepted this destiny as he continued writing screenplays, most of which concerned athletics. He was born in Wilmette, Illinois in 1948 to Anthony Pizzo, a pathologist, and his wife, Patricia. Three years later they moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where Pizzo grew up. He was an indifferent student at University High School but did much better at Indiana University, where he majored in political science and considered going to law school. But after graduation Pizzo felt directionless and uncertain about his future. He was a movie aficionado; his favorite film genre was epic, larger-than-life pictures that swept him into another world. And he had collected over 150 books on film. But to Pizzo it seemed imposs