Sayles, John (Thomas) (1950– )

US film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, and novelist. He has written and directed a number of low-budget independent films, which play with the conventions of genre, blending the personal with the political in often intricately plotted narratives; examples are Matewan (1987), City of Hope (1991), Lone Star (1996), Sunshine State (2002), and Silver City (2004).

Sayles's directorial credits include Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980), Lianna (1983), The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Eight Men Out (1988), Passion Fish (1992), The Secret of Roan Inish (1995), Limbo (1999), and Silver City (2004). In addition, he has worked as writer and performer on a range of commercial mainstream successes. His best known novel, Los Gusanos (1991), depicts several generations of a Cuban family living in Miama, Florida.

He wrote stories submitted to magazines for publication in the early 1970s. ‘Pride of the Bimbos’ (1975) was published after the magazine Atlantic Monthly replied with the idea of making one of these stories into a novel.