David Handelman, a prolific writer whose body of 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 Stone, adding that the cause was Waldenström macroglobulinemia, a rare form of blood cancer.
Handelman joined Rolling Stone in the 1980s and often captured artists and Hollywood figures as they ascended to household names, including memorable profiles on 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 in 42nd Street is injured. I was 25 years old.”
When remembering his time as a young writer at the magazine, Handelman wrote on his blog, Hands On…. that he “remained something of a fringe guy.” He added that while he “was never going to get the interview with the former Beatle, Springsteen, Dylan,” there were days that he “was grateful for that” and instead spoke to artists at a point in their career “where there was enough strife that all I had to do was be sympathetic and then make sure the tape recorder worked.”
Handelman’s piece on Canadian sketch comedy group The Kids in the Hall has been credited as helping introduce the troupe to a American audiences. “It cannot be overstated how important David Handelman’s piece in Rolling Stone was to launching the Kids In The Hall in America and beyond,” author and podcaster Paul Myers says. “Besides being a gifted writer for television, he was the best kind of journalist; one who championed the work of those he believed in … To say he will be missed by many, barely covers it.”
“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,” longtime Rolling Stone contributor David Fricke said in a statement. “He was often on the cusp of meteoric success, writing early, breakthrough pieces on artists as disparate as Jane’s Addiction and country singer Clint Black. And David was as eclectic in his curiousity and advocacy as he was diligent in reporting and portraiture: His defining features and cover stories ran the gamut from Mötley Crüe and the Pogues to playwright and monologuist Eric Bogosian and independent filmmaker Gus Van Sant.
“David was also vigorously social, livening the old Fifth Avenue office and the staff hangs at concerts and industry soirees with informed opinion and repartee. And David was still on the town last March when we ran into each other at the New York club Bowery Electric, a shindig and concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the rock magazine Trouser Press. It was the kind of night the whole RS gang would have made back in the day – with David at the center of the cheer and conversation. I’m glad we caught up again – in the perfect circumstance.”
Handelman also wrote for Vanity Fair, GQ, George, Details, Esquire, and The New York Times, among others. He would go on to write for television shows including The West Wing and The Newsroom, where his experience as a journalist inspired many plot lines and nuances throughout the series.
His first foray into TV arrived after writing a spec, “Larry Sanders,” with Kids in the Hall member Mark McKinney. After reading the spot, Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin hired the duo to co-write an episode of Sorkin’s Sports Night, resulting in Season One’s episode, “Sword of Orion.” Handelman would eventually end up writing for all of Sorkin’s TV series to date including Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
The print journalist-turned TV writer-producer had also written for CBS, NBC, ABC, HBO, the CW, & CNN, and was a staff producer and writer for the long-running CNN weekly news show Smerconish.
On Hands On…., he shared stories about his career and often humorous, sharp observations on life. In his first post to the blog on June 2010, Handelman, a devoted Wilco fan, began with the lyrics from “You and I”: “You and I we might be strangers/However close we get sometimes/It’s like we never met.”
Handelman mused that the song “comes to mind as I embark on this bizarre art form, a calculated broadcast of selfhood to the world, starting with people I think I ‘know’ or ‘know’ me.”
He continued, “Who am I? A magazine journalist turned TV writer (now attempting a play and thinking about a novel). A divorced father of two teenaged girls, a New Yorker who has relocated to LA three times in the past eight years for work. Someone who has lost both parents in the past two and a half years and now knows way too much about executing estates and shutting down a law practice.”
In a separate post written that same day, he recalled getting a Saab convertible inherited from his father stuck in the Cape Cod mud. Not one to miss a cue, Handelman wrote: “At first I thought: so much for the restorative drive. But then I decided, metaphors are what you let them be. The story wasn’t about getting stuck, it was about being freed. And laughing at myself.”