Dalene Young

Writing

Dalene Young

Born 1939-06-29 · Hawaii, USA

Dalene Young (June 29, 1939 — May 9, 2025) was an American screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor. She was best known for writing the coming-of-age comedy-drama Little Darlings (1980), featuring Tatum O’Neal and Kristy McNichol, and the Mary Steenburgen-starring drama Cross Creek (1983). Young received a Daytime Emmy nomination for co-writing the Showtime children’s special Locked in Silence (1999) and landed a Christopher Award and a Humanitas Prize nomination for her work on the NBC telefilm Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wanted (1992).

Acting credits

Pig poster
6.6

A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregon wilderness must visit Portland to find the mysterious person who stole his beloved foraging pig.

Pig

2021

Teen Lust poster
4.1

Kirsten Baker and Leslie Cedarquist are the Girls Next Door in this buoyant sexploitationer. The ladies move in bag and baggage into a sleepy suburban community. Before long, every husband in the vicinity has fallen for their charms.

Teen Lust

1978

Will There Really Be a Morning? poster
7.0

This is the story of actress Frances Farmer, her struggles with mental illness and involuntary confinement in an insane asylum.

Will There Really Be a Morning?

1983

Sonny Boy poster
4.9

A small-town car thief and his transgender wife come across an abandoned infant; they amputate his tongue and train him for a life in crime.

Sonny Boy

1989

Juke Box Racket poster
6.5

Mario, a gangster, takes the fifth amendment when being questioned by the Senate Sub Committee on his connection with racketeering within the juke box industry. While in a small New Jersey town, teenagers Bob, Judy, Ginger, Seymour and Betty go to the train station to pick up Judy's cousin-from-Tennessee, Lulubelle . They take her to their local hangout, a pizzeria called "Mom & Pops", a broken down place ran by a couple named Mom and Pop.

Juke Box Racket

1960

No artwork available
9.0

A story centered around Lee, a young woman whose considerable charm masks an almost innate desire to destroy - especially when it comes to the man who loves her most, a struggling artist named Angelo. Unable to earn a living Lee Ann has found a way out, selling her babies whenever she finds herself pregnant. Caring deeply for children, Angelo is troubled by this, but is torn by his love for Lee Ann. It takes on a whole new dimension when he learns the strange and funny middle class childless couple that has agreed to buy Lee Ann's baby has a past more shocking than he'd ever imagined.

Baby Luv

2000

Behind the camera

Little Darlings poster
6.5

Two 15-year-old girls from different sides of the tracks compete to see who will be first to lose their virginity while at camp.

Little Darlings

1980

The Baby-Sitters Club poster
5.4

Seven junior-high-school girls organize a daycare camp for children while at the same time experiencing classic adolescent growing pains.

The Baby-Sitters Club

1995

Cross Creek poster
6.6

In the 1930s, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida's backwaters to write in peace. She feels bothered by affectionate men, editors and confused neighbors, but soon she connects and writes The Yearling, a classic of American literature.

Cross Creek

1983

The Plutonium Incident poster
6.5

A plutonium plant employee becomes the target of management, as well as union harassment, when she tries to blow the whistle on the company for negligent safety procedures, and she soon finds her life in peril.

The Plutonium Incident

1980

Deadman's Curve poster
5.4

Things were cool. Chicks were pretty. Waves were groovy. Cars had muscle. Jan and Dean rode their wave to the top of the pop charts. Then, in 1966, on their way to becoming rock and roll legends, they have to cope with a devastating car crash that leaves Jan brain-damaged and their dreams shattered.

Deadman's Curve

1978

The Yarn Princess poster
6.3

Margaret, who has certain mental disabilities, struggles when her husband, Jake, is diagnosed with schizophrenia and the authorities wish to take her children away from her. She has to prove in a court of law that she is capable of taking care of her family.

The Yarn Princess

1994

Will There Really Be a Morning? poster
7.0

This is the story of actress Frances Farmer, her struggles with mental illness and involuntary confinement in an insane asylum.

Will There Really Be a Morning?

1983

Panic in Echo Park poster
5.4

A young doctor tries to convince everyone about an impending epidemic, but he is accused of creating panic.

Panic in Echo Park

1977

Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway poster
5.4

15-year-old Dawn runs away from what she feels is an intolerable home life. In the big city, she ends up turning to prostitution when she is unable to get a job due to her age. She meets Alexander, a young male hustler who takes her in, but when she starts working for a pimp, Alexander becomes a target.

Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway

1976

Locked in Silence poster
6.1

A story of a young boy who becomes an elective mute after witnessing what he believes to be the killing by his older brother of a teenage boy. The young boy's brother then tells him not to say anything because of the trouble it would cause in the family... so he doesn't say anything again. The problem is that the young boy so enjoys his acceptance by others of his mutism that it brings his family, a loving and caring farm family, to the brink of financial ruin in medical and psychological costs to cure him. Based on a true story, this is the intelligent telling of a family in crisis, and the work of doctors in dealing with this mental illness.

Locked in Silence

1999

Journey of the Heart poster
5.2

Janice is the subject of the town gossips for four reasons: she wears too much lipstick, her hair is too big, she is a single-mother and her two children are strange. Ray (6) is a hellraiser and Tony (9) is autistic. One day, however, Tony sits down at the piano and plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Janice knows there may be hope for him (and them) yet.

Journey of the Heart

1997

Christmas Miracle in Caufield, U.S.A. poster
6.3

Based on the true story of coal miners who became trapped underground in a cave-in on Christmas Eve, 1951.

Christmas Miracle in Caufield, U.S.A.

1977

The Last Dance poster
7.7

A retired school teacher is reminded of her past after she befriends with one of her former students, Todd Cope.

The Last Dance

2000

Why Me? poster
5.6

An Air Force nurse about to leave the service is badly disfigured about her face in a car accident in which she also loses her baby.

Why Me?

1984

Is There Life Out There? poster
6.0

Lily Marshall has a loving, supportive husband, two great kids and an unfulfilled dream: to return to college and get the degree she always wanted. "Is there life beyond her family and home?", Lily wonders. The hole in Lily's life is soon filled by too much. There's a confusing new social life on campus, schoolwork keeping her up late, a part-time job keeping her from her husband and kids whose mom is turning into a stranger. Lily's strength, love and perseverance are the only things that can help her now.

Is There Life Out There?

1994

No artwork available
NR

Katherine Ann Porter's story of a young woman's dreams of death. The Pale Rider fills her dreams along with her lover.

Pale Horse Pale Rider

1981

Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wanted poster
NR

A Down-syndrome boy left in an institute by his parents. Ginny works in the institute and wants to have Jonathan but has to fight the system and the parents.

Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wanted

1992

I Love You Perfect poster
10.0

A woman, her lover and her best friend cope with the tragedy of her misdiagnosed medical condition.

I Love You Perfect

1989

No artwork available
9.0

A story centered around Lee, a young woman whose considerable charm masks an almost innate desire to destroy - especially when it comes to the man who loves her most, a struggling artist named Angelo. Unable to earn a living Lee Ann has found a way out, selling her babies whenever she finds herself pregnant. Caring deeply for children, Angelo is troubled by this, but is torn by his love for Lee Ann. It takes on a whole new dimension when he learns the strange and funny middle class childless couple that has agreed to buy Lee Ann's baby has a past more shocking than he'd ever imagined.

Baby Luv

2000