Jonathan Demme

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Jonathan Demme

Born

Robert Jonathan Demme
February 22, 1944 (age 64)
Baldwin, Long Island, New York, U.S.

Spouse(s)

Joanne Howard
Evelyn Purcell

Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Director 1991 The Silence of the Lambs

Robert Jonathan Demme (born February 22, 1944) is an Academy Award-winning American film director, producer and writer.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Personal life
- 1.2 Career
2 Filmography
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

Demme was born in Baldwin, New York, the son of Dorothy Demme and a public relations executive father.^[1] Demme has three children and is a graduate of the University of Florida. He also was the uncle of director Ted Demme, who died in 2002.

[edit] Career

Demme broke into feature film directing working for Roger Corman. His first mainstream feature Melvin and Howard caught the eye of Hollywood and he was signed to direct the Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell vehicle Swing Shift. The compromised production saw Demme withdraw for a time from major feature films making a notable series of 'concert films' with Stop Making Sense and Swimming to Cambodia. He continues to alternate making feature films with documentaries and concert/performance films. For instance, he was the executive producer for his longtime friend Nancy Savoca's Household Saints.

In 1991, Demme won the Academy Award for The Silence of the Lambs—one of the few films to win all the major categories (best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor, and best actress). Demme directed an Oscar-winning turn from Tom Hanks in his next feature, Philadelphia.

Since then, Demme's films have included remakes of two popular films, The Truth About Charlie -- a new version of Charade that starred Mark Wahlberg in the Cary Grant role -- and The Manchurian Candidate with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.

His 2007 documentary Man from Plains about former U.S. President Jimmy Carter promoting the book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid^[2] premiered at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals.

One of his common directorial motifs is to allow characters to look directly into the camera. Demme formed his production company, Clinica Estetico, with producers Edward Saxon and Peter Saraf. They were based out of New York for fifteen years.

[edit] Filmography

Caged Heat (1974)
Crazy Mama (1975)
Fighting Mad (1976)
Handle with Care aka Citizen's Band (1977)
Last Embrace (1979)
Melvin and Howard (1980)
Who Am I This Time? (1983)
Swing Shift (1984)
Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads concert film) (1984)
The Perfect Kiss (New Order music video) (1985)
Something Wild (1986)
Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
Haiti: Dreams of Democracy (1987)
Married to the Mob (1988)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Cousin Bobby (1991)
Philadelphia (1993)
Beloved (1998)
Storefront Hitchcock (1998)
The Truth About Charlie (2002)
The Agronomist (2003)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006)
Man from Plains (2007)
New Home Movies From the Lower 9th Ward (2007)
Dancing With Shiva (2008)

Awards
Preceded by Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves	Academy Award for Best Director 1991 for The Silence of the Lambs	Succeeded by Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven

[edit] References

[edit] External links

v • d • e Thomas Harris's Hannibal series
Novels Red Dragon • The Silence of the Lambs Hannibal • Hannibal Rising	Main Characters Hannibal Lecter Will Graham Clarice Starling	Films Manhunter • The Silence of the Lambs • Hannibal Red Dragon • Hannibal Rising
Secondary Characters List of minor characters in the Hannibal series Buffalo Bill • Francis Dolarhyde • Frederick Chilton • Jack Crawford • Mason Verger • Lady Murasaki