James L. Brooks
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| James L. Brooks | |||||||||||||||
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| Born | May 9, 1940 Brooklyn, New York, USA |
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| Spouse(s) | Holly Beth Holmberg (1978-1999)[1] Marianne Catherine Morrissey (m. 1964) |
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James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is an American three-time Academy Award-, nineteen-time Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning producer, writer, and film director. He is known for producing American television programs such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons (in which he created miscellaneous characters, including the Bouvier family), Rhoda and Taxi. His best-known film is Terms of Endearment, for which he received three Academy Awards in 1984.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Personal life
Brooks was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Dorothy Helen (née Sheinheit) and Edward M. Brooks.[2] He was raised in North Bergen, New Jersey in a Jewish family.[3] Brooks has donated over $175,000 to Democratic Party candidates.[4]
[edit] Career
Brooks began his television career as a writer for CBS News from 1964 to 1966. After working for the ABC television series Room 222 as executive story editor, Brooks was hired along with writing partner Allan Burns by television executive Grant Tinker to create a show that would later become The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show became a critical and commercial success and spawned other television shows created by Brooks and Burns such as Rhoda, Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers, Taxi, The Associates, and Lou Grant. Brooks often sat in the studio audience of shows that he produced in the 1970s. Viewers can usually tell whether Brooks was in the audience by his distinctive loud guffaw. He would also make occasional cameo appearances.[citation needed]
In 1978, Brooks began work on feature motion films. His first project was being writer and co-producer on the film Starting Over and later wrote, produced and directed Terms of Endearment in 1983. Brooks later started his own film and television production company, Gracie Films, in 1984. Gracie Films would produce the television series The Tracey Ullman Show and its spin-off, The Simpsons as well as the animated series The Critic. Gracie Films' notable film productions were Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets, Big, Bottle Rocket and Broadcast News.
Brooks had a cameo in The Simpsons episode "A Star Is Born-Again". He also played a semi-fictional version of himself in friend Albert Brooks' comedy Modern Romance as an opinionated film director. The Halloween episodes bill him as "Chains Hell Brooks" in the opening credits.
Brooks mentored Cameron Crowe and was the executive producer of Crowe's directorial debut Say Anything.... Crowe recalled later in an interview of the film's anniversary that he approached Brooks and told him about these ideas he had. Upon hearing this, Brooks encouraged Crowe to keep writing.[citation needed] Brooks also mentored Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson after they brought Bottle Rocket to his attention. Owen believes they wouldn't have gotten the film made if it wasn't for Brooks' help.[citation needed] In 2007, Brooks appeared -- along with star Hollywood screenwriters Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher, and others -- in Dreams on Spec, a documentary about filmmaking. Brooks is one of the few people thanked during the end credits for the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
[edit] Filmography
- My Three Sons (1960)
- The Andy Griffith Show (1960)
- My Mother The Car (1965) (writer)
- Mary Tyler Moore (1970) (producer)
- Rhoda (1974) (producer)
- Thursday's Game (1974) (Writer-Producer)
- Taxi (1978) (producer)
- Terms of Endearment (1983) (director) (writer) (producer)
- The Tracey Ullman Show (1987) (producer)
- Broadcast News (1987) (director) (writer) (producer)
- Big (1988) (producer)
- Say Anything... (1989) (producer)
- The Simpsons (1989-present) (executive producer)
- I'll Do Anything (1994) (director) (writer) (producer)
- The Critic (1994) (executive producer)
- Bottle Rocket (1996) (producer)
- Jerry Maguire (1996) (producer)
- As Good as It Gets (1997) (director) (writer) (producer)
- Spanglish (2004) (director) (writer) (producer)
- The Simpsons Movie (2007) (producer) (screenplay)
[edit] Further reading
- BROOKS, JAMES L. entry. Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved on June 9, 2005.
- James L Brooks Biography. All Movies Guide & Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved on June 9, 2005.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Preceded by none |
(with Matt Groening and Sam Simon) The Simpsons Showrunner 1989 – 1991 |
Succeeded by Al Jean & Mike Reiss |
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