Ronald Lawrence Kovic (born July 4, 1946) is an American anti-war activist, writer, and former United States Marine Corps sergeant, who was wounded and paralyzed in the Vietnam War. He is best known as the author of his best selling 1976 memoir Born on the Fourth of July, which was made into the Academy Award–winning 1989 film directed by Oliver Stone.Kovic received the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay on January 20, 1990, 22 years to the day that he was wounded in Vietnam, and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.