David Handelman, a prolific author whose work spanned journalism, fiction and television, died Thursday at the age of 63.
Sheila Rogers, a friend of Handelman, confirmed the writer’s death to Rolling Stoneand added that the cause was Waldenström macroglobulinemia, a rare form of blood cancer.
Handelman joined Rolling Stone in the 1980s and often photographed artists and Hollywood personalities as they rose to become household names, including memorable portraits on the Beastie Boys, the Coen brothers and Jane’s Addiction. He also wrote the publication’s first cover story on Talking Heads, which he called his “big break,” “like when the dancer gets hurt on 42nd Street. I was 25 years old.”
Recalling his time as a young writer at the magazine, Handelman wrote on his blog: Practical application… that he “remained something of a fringe guy.” He added that while he would “never get the interview with the former Beatle, Springsteen or Dylan,” there were days when he was “grateful for it” and instead spoke to artists at a point in their careers “where there was enough controversy that all I had to do was be sympathetic and then make the tape recorder work.”
Handelman’s contribution to the Canadian sketch comedy group The Kids in the Hall is said to have helped to introduce the group to an American audience. “It cannot be overstated how important David Handelman’s contribution to Rolling Stone was the launch of Kids In The Hall in America and beyond,” says author and podcaster Paul Myers. “He was not only a gifted television writer, but a journalist of the finest kind; one who championed the work of those he believed in… To say he will be missed by many is hardly enough.”
“David Handelman was a crucial, compelling voice in the rock & roll energy and cultural mainstream authority of Rolling Stone in the 1980s and early 1990s”, long-standing Rolling Stone “Often on the verge of meteoric success, he wrote early, groundbreaking articles on artists as diverse as Jane’s Addiction and country singer Clint Black. And David was as versatile in his curiosity and engagement as he was in his reporting and portraiture: his signature features and cover stories ranged from Mötley Crüe and the Pogues to playwright and monologist Eric Bogosian and independent filmmaker Gus Van Sant.
“David was also very sociable and brought life to the old Fifth Avenue office, and the staff would come to concerts and industry nights with informed opinions and quick wit. And David was still in town last March when we met at New York’s Bowery Electric club, a party and concert celebrating the rock magazine’s 50th anniversary. Trouser press. It was the kind of night that the whole RS Gang would have done back then – with David at the centre of the celebrations and the conversation. I’m glad we met again – under the perfect circumstances.”
Handelman also wrote for Vanity Fair, GQ, George, Details, esquireAnd The New York Timesamong others. He later wrote for television shows, including The western wing And The Newsroomwhere his experiences as a journalist inspired many of the series’ storylines and nuances.
His first foray into television came after he co-wrote a commercial with Kids in the Hall member Mark McKinney called “Larry Sanders.” After reading the commercial, Oscar-winning writer and director Aaron Sorkin hired the duo to co-create an episode of Sorkin’s Sports nightwhich led to the first season episode “Sword of Orion.” Handelman eventually wrote for all of Sorkin’s previous television series, including Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
The print journalist turned TV writer and producer had also written for CBS, NBC, ABC, HBO, CW and CNN and was a staff producer and writer for CNN’s long-running weekly news program Smerconian.
To Practical application…he told stories about his career and often made humorous, astute observations about life. Handelman, a loyal Wilco fan, began his first blog post in June 2010 with the lyrics of “You and I”: “You and I, we may be strangers/However close we sometimes get/It’s as if we’ve never met.”
Handelman mused that the song “comes to mind when I engage in this bizarre art form, a calculated projection of self into the world, starting with people I think I ‘know’ or who ‘know’ me.”
He continued: “Who am I? A magazine journalist turned television writer (and now trying his hand at a play and thinking about a novel). A divorced father of two teenage girls, a New Yorker who has moved to LA three times in the last eight years for work. Someone who has lost both parents in the last two and a half years and now knows far too much about estate settlements and the closing of a law firm.”
In a separate post he wrote the same day, he recalled how a Saab convertible he inherited from his father got stuck in the mud of Cape Cod. Handelman, never one to miss an opportunity, wrote: “At first I thought: So much for a restful drive. But then I decided that metaphors are what you make of them. The story wasn’t about getting stuck, it was about getting free. And laughing at myself.”
