Ponicsan was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of Anne (née Kuleck) and Frank G. Ponicsan, a merchant. He attended Muhlenberg College, (A.B., 1959) and Cornell University, (M.A., 1965).
He was a high school English teacher in Owego, New York, 1959–62, He served in the U.S. Navy from 1962 to 1965 aboard the USS Monrovia and USS Intrepid, was a social worker for Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California in 1965, and a high school English teacher in La Cañada, California from 1966 to 1969.
Ponicsan also wrote the screenplays for the CBS movie A Girl Called Hatter Fox (1977), the movies Nuts (1987), School Ties (1992), the HBO movie The Enemy Within (1992), and the CBS series The Mississippi (1983). He has worked frequently with producer-director Harold Becker, penning scripts for Taps (1981), Vision Quest (1985), and The Boost (1988).

Return to Darryl Ponicsan Autograph Profile