Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society, motion picture starring Robin Williams as an inspirational teacher at a prep school in the 1950s. Released in 1989, the film won an Academy Award for Tom Schulman’s screenplay. After John Keating (played by Williams) encourages his students to question authority and live life to the fullest, several of them form a secret club devoted to poetry called the Dead Poets Society. One of the students kills himself, and all the characters struggle to come to terms with his death. When the school suggests Keating provoked the student’s suicide and fires him, his students leap to his defense.

Director

• Peter Weir

Cast

• Robin Williams (John Keating)
• Robert Sean Leonard (Neil Perry)
• Ethan Hawke (Todd Anderson)
• Josh Charles (Knox Overstreet)
• Gale Hansen (Charlie Dalton)
• Dylan Kussman (Richard Cameron)
• Allelon Ruggiero (Steven Meeks)
• James Waterston (Gerard Pitts)
• Norman Lloyd (Mr. Nolan)
• Kurtwood Smith (Mr. Perry)
• Carla Belver (Mrs. Perry)
• Leon Pownall (McAllister)

Awards

• Academy Award for Best Screenplay—Written Directly for the Screen (1989): Tom Schulman

Quote

• John Keating (to his students): “Seize the day!”