Alvin Sargent was an American screenwriter who wrote Ordinary People and the Marvel screenplays for Sony: Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man. His writing for Spider-Man 2 got widespread acclaim. He also wrote a few episodes of Paper Moon. He was married to film producer Laura Ziskin, who produced the Spider-Man films he had written.
He was quoted as saying, "When I die, I'm going to have written on my tombstone: 'Finally, a plot.'".
He and Laura Ziskin married in 2010 after living together for over 25 years.
Briefly acted at The Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, subsequently becoming an ad salesman for Variety.
Although he is an award-winning screenwriter, he is known to take his
time writing his scripts. He took over a year to write the screenplay
to Ordinary People (1980).