Norman Frederick Jewison Canadian director, producer and actor Date of Birth: 21.07.1926 Country: Canada

Biography of Norman Frederick Jewison

Norman Frederick Jewison was a Canadian director, producer, and actor. He was born in 1926 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From childhood, Jewison was trained in playing the piano and later honed his skills and studied music theory at the conservatory. He earned a Bachelor's degree from Victoria College in the University of Toronto.

After serving in the military in the navy, Jewison worked as a taxi driver in Toronto. During this time, he tried to break into Canadian television but was unsuccessful. He then went to London where he had better luck and became an actor and scriptwriter (albeit only as an intern) at the BBC.

By the mid-20th century, Jewison, who had returned to his homeland, had become one of the leading directors. In the late 1950s, he signed a contract with CBS after three years of work in New York, which earned him three Emmy Awards.

Jewison's debut in the film industry came in 1962 with the comedy "40 Pounds of Trouble," which brought him a long-term contract with Universal Studios. Several comedies followed, including "The Thrill of It All," "Send Me No Flowers," and "The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming" – the last one being an anti-war satirical comedy about a Russian submarine that was a huge success with audiences.

In 1967, Jewison directed the anti-racist detective film "In the Heat of the Night" starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. The film won five Academy Awards and brought the director well-deserved fame. Jewison also achieved great success with his 1973 rock opera film "Jesus Christ Superstar," the cinematic adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's legendary rock opera. Interestingly, Jewison wrote the screenplay for this adaptation himself, which was his only work in this capacity.

In 1975, Jewison directed the sports science fiction action film "Rollerball," about a brutal and very realistic game that became the most popular sport in the world according to the plot. It is said that the invented game was so captivating that the actors and stuntmen played it during breaks in filming. This film was also notable for being the first to credit all the involved stunt performers in the credits. Jewison was so impressed with their work that he decided to deviate from the tradition of keeping the names of stunt performers off-screen. This noble innovation caught on, and since then, all stunt performers are always credited in the closing credits.

In 1980, Jewison released the military action film "The Dogs of War," which portrayed a dictatorial regime in a small African country and the attempt to overthrow it. As his career progressed, Jewison directed many films of diverse genres, each with a gripping and engaging plot. He directed the anti-racist drama "A Soldier's Story" in 1984, in which a young and relatively unknown actor, Denzel Washington, played a role. The thriller "Agnes of God" was released in 1985, followed by the action film "The January Man" in 1989 and the comedy "Other People's Money" with Danny DeVito in 1991. The family comedy "Bogus" with Whoopi Goldberg and Gérard Depardieu was released in 1996.

In 1999, Jewison once again directed Denzel Washington, who by then had become quite famous, in the sports drama "The Hurricane." The dramatic thriller "The Statement" was released by the nearly eighty-year-old Norman Jewison in 2003.

Jewison's wife, Margaret Ann, whom he had been married to since 1953 and with whom he had three children, passed away for unknown reasons in November 2004.