Nick Enright, 52; Aussie Co-Wrote the Screenplay for ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’

Nick Enright, a popular Australian playwright who shared an Oscar nomination in 1993 for co-writing the screenplay for “Lorenzo’s Oil,” starring Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte as parents trying to save their small son, has died. He was 52.

Enright died Sunday in a Sydney hospital of malignant melanoma. He had fought the skin cancer for the last year with chemotherapy and radiation and, at the suggestion of actor friend Mel Gibson, even traveled to Los Angeles for naturopathy treatment involving diet and meditation.

The versatile writer shared his Academy Award nomination for the “Lorenzo’s Oil” screenplay with the film’s director, George Miller, a former doctor. But the original screenplay Oscar that year was awarded to Neil Jordan for “The Crying Game.”

Born in Maitland, Australia, Enright began his career as a general assistant at Sydney’s Nimrod Street Theatre and then studied at the New York University School of the Arts, where he was mentored by actress Olympia Dukakis.

Enright had a career-long association with Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, where he headed drama from 1982 to 1984 and worked with such actors as Gibson and Cate Blanchett.

As passionate about teaching as writing, Enright taught at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Australian Theater for Young People. Enright, a strong advocate of workshops on his own plays, in 1999 became one of three co-founders of the theater company State of Play, specializing in collaborative material.

Equally adept at comedy, drama and musicals, Enright wrote primarily for the stage, but also crafted television miniseries such as “Come in Spinner” and, in addition to “Lorenzo’s Oil,” adapted his own play “Blackrock” for the big screen.

Among the best known of his about two dozen produced works were his musical about Peter Allen, “The Boy from Oz,” his adaptation for the stage of Tim Winton’s novel “Cloudstreet,” and his comedy “Daylight Saving.”

Often called Australia’s most important working playwright, Enright was the first to demur.

“Look, you just write the next thing, and people do it or they don’t do it. I think it’s a really dangerous game to try and assess yourself in relationship to anybody else. I never do,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald in 1998. “But I’m glad that I do what I do and I think that it’s probably quite a good way to spend your life. It amuses me, which is pretty good. It keeps me in food and clothing, it enables me to work with a lot of really interesting people, and, yes, of course, you want to make connections with an audience.”

Enright is survived by his mother, three brothers and a sister.