Can you become famous for writing screenplays? If you actually sell your script, and it becomes a movie, and that movie goes on to be something record-breakingly awesome, do you really get any fame and fortune for your vision in the real world? Or does the director get all the credit?

Well, both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who had been kicking around as actors for several years, became VERY famous when their script for Good Will Hunting finally became a film. Of course, then they ended up acting a lot and doing very little further writing!

There are famous screenwriters, but they tend to direct their own scripts, like Spielberg.

Charlie Kaufman was famous as a screenwriter before he became a director with Synecdoche, New York. One could argue that he was the true creative force behind the films he wrote, even if he didn't direct them (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

Ben Hecht was a pretty famous screenwriter in Hollywood, notably for the original Scarface and Hitchcock's Notorious. Robert Towne, who wrote Chinatown, is well-known. Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver, is also well-known.

But most screenwriters who actually become famous are also directors, like Ingmar Bergman, Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, the Coen brothers, etc.

Spielberg doesn't write screenplays. He comes up with stories and concepts and hires writers to do it for him -- people like Melissa Mathison, Philip Kaufmann and Lawrence Kasdan.

William Goldman is probably the best known of today's writers since he also made famous that saying about Hollywood -- "Nobody knows anything."

There's also Paddy Chayefsky; 2 Oscars and famous for writing a farce -- "Network" -- that turned out to be too-damn-prophetic.

And don't forget Rod Serling.

David Mamet, Diablo Cody, Joss Whedon, Emma Thompson, Sylvester Stallone...

Look over the list of Academy Award Winners and Nominees and see how many names you recognize. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Writing_Original_Screenpl...

You can but part of the beauty of screenwriting is being a man behind the scenes that is an unexpendable creative force without having to be subjected to the media and gossip circus of vanity and superficial tripe; you'll still have to wade through industry crap but not red carpet nonsense or tabloid fodder.

Though many writers choose to branch into directing later on which is higher profile.

Enjoy your privacy sir, don't go looking for fame, it will find you if at all and you likely won't be fond of it.

If you're doing it for fame, you're doing it for the wrong reasons. If you do it for fame, you'll never be famous enough. If you're doing it for riches, you'll never be rich enough. Do it for the sake of truth, for the sake of beauty.