The characters in "The Big Chill" were based on peo le Kasdan knew from his
college years at U-M The ensemble cast includes, let to right, Glenn Close, Kevin
Kline, Meg Tilly, William Hurt, Tom Berenger„ Jeff Goldblum and JoBeth Williams.

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4/16
1999

90 Detroit Jewish News

always encouraged me."
When Kasdan was 14, his father
suddenly died. "My father died a
month after [John] Kennedy was
killed, and while the world was mourn-
ing Kennedy, I was grieving for my
father. It was hard to understand and a
very difficult time," he remembers.
Growing up in Morgantown,
W.Va., a city with a relatively
small Jewish population, Kasdan felt
different from his friends. "There was
a lot of anti-Semitism in West
Virginia," he says. "I had a strong
Jewish identity and felt besieged as an
outsider.
"People were always saying, 'I
Jewed him down' or 'He Jewed me.' It
was a time when Jews were the victims
of stereotyping. There was total igno-
rance among the neighborhood kids
— they heard things at home and just
perpetuated it. Yet, because of my
exposure to anti-Semitism, I was able
to build some kind of strength."
Kasdan went to temple and was
confirmed, although he did not have a
bar mitzvah. His mother taught
Sunday school. Currently, Kasdan
does not formally practice his Judaism,
although he says he still feels "very
Jewish" and continues to have "a
strong Jewish identity."
While at U-M, Kasdan says, he had
a lot of Jewish friends, and met his
future wife, Mary Ellen (Meg)
Goldman, a graduate of University-
Liggett. Her parents, Irving and Doris
Goldman, are residents of Franklin,

Mich. Rabbi Sherwin Wine married the
Kasdans at the Birmingham Temple,
where the Goldmans are still members.
"We are very proud to have Lawrence
as our son-in-law," says Irving Goldman,
currently retired and the former owner
of Grant Southern Iron and Metal
Company. "We knew that he was a
very good writer, and that he would be
successful, but no one could have pre-
dicted the extent of his success."
Kasdan's first job after earning his
master's degree was advertising copy-
writer at W B. Doner & Co. in
Detroit, where he worked from 1972-
75. He accepted the job because he
was unable to land a teaching position.
"Although I didn't want to be in
advertising, the first year was very
exciting. It was my first taste of the
real world," says Kasdan. "But as time
went on, I began to hate my job
because I really wanted to be working
in movies. Frustrated, I would write
screenplays at night."
Irving Goldman says he was grate-
ful for the opportunity to live close to
Meg and Lawrence during the three
years they spent in Southfield, espe-
cially when the 1974 birth of the cou-
ple's first child came along. "We knew
it was temporary, and that they would
eventually wind up in L.A.," says
Goldman, who has visited the sets of
some of his son-in-law's films. "But it
was wonderful having them nearby."
Kasdan was able to make the leap
from Detroit to Los Angeles thanks to
his advertising job, which sent him to