Colin Higgins (July 28, 1941 – August 5, 1988) was an Australian-American screenwriter, actor, director, and producer. He was best known for writing the screenplay for the 1971 film Harold and Maude. and for directing the films Foul Play (1978) and 9 to 5 (1980).
Higgins was born in Nouméa, New Caledonia to an Australian mother and American father. Higgins’ father enlisted in the army following the attack on Pearl Harbour, and his mother returned to her home in Sydney with Colin and his elder brother. Apart from a brief stint in San Francisco in 1945, Higgins lived in Sydney until 1957, mostly in the suburb of Hunters Hill, attending school at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview.
After moving to Redwood City, California, Higgins attended Stanford University for a year, but then lost his scholarship "because I became so obsessed with theatre". He moved to New York and hung around the Actors Studio but could not find work, so he became a page at the ABC television studios. He lost hope at becoming an actor and enlisted in the US Army, where he was sent to Germany and worked for Stars and Stripes newspaper. He was discharged in 1965, spent six months in Europe, mostly in Paris, then returned to Stanford University to study a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. While at college he supported himself as an actor, playing in small theatre productions, including acting in a sex farce called Once over Nightly for a year an a half. He then did a M.F.A. in screenwriting at UCLA, where his classmates included Paul Schrader. While there he made two short films, Opus One, a satire on student films, and Retreat, an anti-war statement. His M.F.A. thesis would serve as the basis for Harold and Maude (1971).