Mike Medavoy

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Mike Medavoy

Morris Mike Medavoy (born January 21, 1941) is an American film producer and executive, co-founder of Orion Pictures, former chairman of TriStar Pictures, former head of production for United Artist 1974-1978 and current chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures.

Born in Shanghai ^[1], he started out in the Universal Studios mailroom in 1964. He rose from the mailroom to become a casting director. In 1965, he became an agent at General Artist Corporation and then vice-president at Creative Management Agency. Joining International Famous Agency as vice-president in charge of the motion picture department in 1971, he worked with such prestigious clients as Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Gene Wilder, Jeanne Moreau, and Jean-Louis Trintignant among others. United Artists brought him in as senior vice president of production in 1974 where he was part of the team responsible for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, and Annie Hall all of which won the Best Picture Oscars over three successive years in 1975, 1976, and 1977. Other notable pictures included Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Network, and Coming Home.

In 1978 Medavoy co-founded Orion Pictures. During his tenure Platoon, Amadeus, Robocop, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Terminator, Dances with Wolves, and The Silence of the Lambs were released. In 1990, after twelve fruitful years at Orion, Medavoy became Chairman of TriStar Pictures. Under his aegis, critically acclaimed, box office successes, Philadelphia, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (with Carolco), Sleepless in Seattle, Cliffhanger (with Carolco), The Fisher King, Legends of the Fall and Steven Spielberg’s Hook debuted. Of all the films Medavoy has been involved with, sixteen have been nominated for Best Picture Oscars and seven have won Best Picture Academy Awards and numerous international festival awards.

Medavoy has made a mark not only within his industry, but in his community as well. He has received numerous awards including the 1992 Motion Picture Pioneer of the Year Award, “Career Achievement” Awards from both UCLA (1997) and the University of Central Florida (2002) and the 1999 UCLA Neil H. Jacoby Award, which honors individuals who have made exceptional contributions to humanity. In 2001, he received the inaugural Fred Zinnemann Award presented by the Anti-Defamation League and in 2002 received the Israel Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, he received the Louis B. Mayer Business Award – Leader of the Year Award from Florida Atlantic University, and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cannes Film Festival (1998). In 2005, Medavoy was the recipient of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and Producers Guild of America Vision Award. In 2007 he received the Stella Adler Studios Marlon Brando Award. Mr. Medavoy has also served as Chairman of the jury of the Tokyo Film Festival, adviser to the Shanghai Film Festival, and advisor to the St. Petersburg Festival. Member of the board of the academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (1977 – 1981). He is also one of the original founding members of the Board of Governors of the Sundance Institute (1978) and is chairman emeritus of the American Cinematheque and the Stella Adler Actors Studio. In addition, he was also inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received a star on Hollywood Boulevard (2005).

Extending his involvement in the community, Mike was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles by former Governor Jerry Brown and was appointed by Mayor Richard Riordan as Commissioner on the Los Angeles Board of Parks and Recreations. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Tel Aviv. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the UCLA Foundation and is a member of the Chancellor’s Associates, the Dean’s Advisory Board at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television, the Alumni Association’s Student Relations Committee. He is also the Co-Chairman of the Burkle Center for UCLA’s Center for International Relations and serves as a member of the Board of Advisors at the Kennedy School at Harvard University and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In 2002, Governor Gray Davis appointed Mike to the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center’s Executive Advisory Board. In the same year Simon & Schuster published Mr. Medavoy’s best-selling book, “You’re Only As Good As Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films and 100 For Which I Should Be Shot” – which was subsequently released in paperback in 2003. Medavoy is also working on a book on the impact of media on U.S. Foreign Policy together with co-author Nathan Gardel, editor of the National Political Quarterly.

Throughout his career Mike Medavoy has also been active in politics; he actively participated in President Clinton’s election campaigns in 1992 and 1996.

In 2006, he won the 2006 Hollywood Film Award for Producer of the Year.

Today, as chairman and co-founder of Phoenix Pictures, Mike Medavoy has amongst other films brought to the screen The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Mirror Has Two Faces, U Turn, Apt Pupil, The Thin Red Line, The 6th Day, Basic, and Holes. These films have received many nominations and won two Golden Bears at the Berlin Film Festival and five Golden Satellite Awards, a cinematography award for John Toll from the ASC and nominations from the DGA and WGA for Terrence Malick. Two of his films, The Thin Red Line and The People vs. Larry Flint (a Milos Forman movie), received Academy nominations.

Medavoy, who was the executor of Marlon Brando's will, also produced a 165 minute biopic of the actor for TCM, released in 2007^[2].

Recently Phoenix has released, among others, All the King's Men (starring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins and Mark Ruffalo, written and directed by Steven Zaillian), Zodiac (starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo, directed by David Fincher), Miss Potter (starring Rene Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, directed by Chris Noonan), and Pathfinder (starring Karl Urban, directed by Marcus Nispel), and has started production on both Ashecliffe, a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Shanghai, starring John Cusack.

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Medavoy appears in the 2005 musical documentary The American Ruling Class written by Lewis Lapham. He is shown in his home, giving advice to "Mike Vanzetti", an aspiring writer and Harvard graduate from a poor family background.