About

Terry Runté was way more talented than most people got to see.

He was sharp-witted and provocative, curious and impatient, generous and spontaneous. He had a flair for language and self-invention. He was usually late.

He wrote humor for National Lampoon and Playboy and Omni, and co-wrote movies that he and I both wished were better. These included Mystery Date, with Ethan Hawke and Teri Polo, and Super Mario Bros., with Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper.

Terry really didn’t want to be known only for those movies, so he was working on a new one, a romantic comedy set in Jamaica. He went down there looking for inspiration.

Instead, he got murdered.

None of his friends could believe it at first. Terry would often commit to long-tail pranks, and faking his own death seemed not only plausible but entirely likely. They never did find a body.

But they got a confession. And when police divers searched the waters around what locals call “Shark Rock” they found enough evidence to get a conviction. That was in 1994.

Since that time, I’d been meaning to write about Terry — about our friendship and our adventures together in Hollywood — but I kept putting it off. I didn’t want the prank to be over.

Luckily, there was a pandemic. That’s given me some time and perspective and impetus, and now I’m about two-thirds of the way through writing the first draft of a memoir.

In the process, I’ve gathered stories and sketches and articles that Terry wrote, which I would love for more people to enjoy. I’ll be posting them here, along with photos and videos and anything else that might help Terry be remembered as the prodigious talent he was.

So much more than just the guy who wrote Super Mario Bros.

— Parker Bennett
October 8th, 2021