Alvin Sargent was born Alvin Supowitz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Esther (née Kadansky) and Isaac Supowitz. He was of Russian Jewish descent. Sargent attended Upper Darby High School, leaving aged 17 to join the Navy. As of 2006, he was one of 35 alumni to be on the school's Wall of Fame.
Sargent began writing for television in 1953 and through the 1960s he scripted episodes for Route 66, Ben Casey and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He collaborated on his first screenplay for a film on Gambit (1966) and gained recognition for I Walk the Line (1970) and Paper Moon (1973) for which he won the WGA Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and was nominated for an Academy Award. He won the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay in 1978 for the film Julia (1977) and again in 1981 for Ordinary People (1980). He collaborated on the 2004 screenplay for Spider-Man 2 and the 2007 screenplay for Spider-Man 3. He'd also collaborate on the screenplay for the 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man.
He had a longtime relationship with producer Laura Ziskin; they were married from 2010 until her death in 2011. His brother was writer and producer Herb Sargent.

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