Former actress and screenwriter Jennifer Salt was seen dashing around Los Angeles recently at the age of 81. Salt began her entertainment career as an actress in the 1960s before transitioning into a successful screenwriting career in the 1990s.
The Daily Mail contacted a representative for Salt for comment regarding her recent appearance.
Sitcom stardom on Soap
Salt achieved her greatest on-screen fame on the sitcom Soap, a parody of soap operas that ran from 1977 to 1981. Created by Susan Harris, who later created The Golden Girls, the series featured Salt as the frosty and grasping Eunice Tate, one of three children in the central family.
The show served as a breakthrough launchpad for Billy Crystal, who played the mincing Jodie Dallas, one of the earliest gay characters on American television. The series also starred Diana Canova and Harold Gould alongside Salt and Crystal.
Soap developed a raunchy reputation that earned an official condemnation from the Catholic Church. Gay groups also expressed misgivings about Jodie's portrayal, particularly an early storyline where he considered a sex change. The network canceled the show after four seasons under suspicion that its boundary-pushing content frightened advertisers.
Hollywood origins and blacklist
Born in Los Angeles in 1944, Salt was raised in an entertainment family as the daughter of screenwriter Waldo Salt. Her father was blacklisted from Hollywood during the Red Scare because of his communist views.
Salt recalled her childhood perspective on the blacklist to the blog Cult Film Freaks. "As far as the blacklisting is concerned, I didn't even understand it back then," Salt said. "I saw it as some kind of strange science fiction event like an episode of The Twilight Zone."
After the blacklist dissolved, Waldo Salt mounted a major industry comeback. He won Oscars for writing Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home, both of which starred actor Jon Voight.
Early film roles and romance
Salt landed one of her early movie roles in 1969 in Midnight Cowboy, playing Crazy Annie, the first love of Jon Voight's character Joe Buck.
In the film, Joe and Annie suffer a gang rape, after which Annie is institutionalized. Joe then moves to New York, meets a wheeler-dealer played by Dustin Hoffman, and becomes a hustler.
Salt began a real-life romance with Voight during the filming of Midnight Cowboy. The couple stayed together for over a year before splitting in 1970.
Her early career was heavily shaped by director Brian De Palma, who later made Carrie and Scarface. During this period, Salt lived with actress Margot Kidder, who dated De Palma, according to author Peter Biskind's book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.
Salt appeared in De Palma's 1969 film The Wedding Party, which marked only the second credited film role for Robert De Niro. She reunited with De Niro and De Palma in the 1970 movie Hi, Mom! before starring in De Palma's 1972 horror movie Sisters.
In Sisters, Kidder played conjoined twins whose surgical separation leads to a split personality plot. Salt played a tough-as-nails news reporter who witnesses a murder that sets the story in motion.
On the set of Sisters, De Palma advised Salt to try being a total b**** to see if it worked. Salt joked in response that he should hold off until her period, saying she would then be as big of a b**** as he wanted.
In 1972, Salt showcased her comedic skills in Play It Again, Sam, starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. Herb Ross directed the film from a play written by Allen, with Salt playing Allen's disastrous blind date Sharon, who shifted between his fantasy of a sizzling bombshell and the reality of a mousy intellectual.
Transition to screenwriting career
Following the end of Soap, Salt's acting career slowed down to guest appearances on shows including Magnum, P.I., Murder, She Wrote, and Family Ties. After 1990, she moved permanently behind the camera to focus on screenwriting.
She wrote several episodes for television producer Ryan Murphy on his series Nip/Tuck and American Horror Story.
Salt achieved her largest screenwriting success with the 2010 movie Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, and James Franco. The film adapted Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir about a post-divorce journey through Italy, India, and Bali.
Salt co-wrote the screenplay with Murphy, who directed the project. The movie became a major box office success and launched a mainstream comeback for Roberts.
Reflecting on her career change, Salt said she grew to appreciate her father's work as she got older by watching his films and studying his script notations. She noted that writing was easier than acting because she could create characters from her imagination rather than interpreting someone else's work.
Salt described writing as truly exciting work that she found much more rewarding than acting. On a personal note, Salt was married to David Greenberg from 1976 to 1980, and their son Jonah Greenberg currently works as a talent agent.
