Mike Medavoy
- Producer
- Actor
- Executive
Sample some of the best American films over the past forty years and
there's a good chance Mike Medavoy played a role in the success of many
of them. From agent to studio chief to producer, he has been involved
with over 300 feature films, of which 17 have been nominated and 7 have
won Best Picture Oscars®, as well as numerous international film
festival awards.
Medavoy began his career at Universal Studios in 1964. He rose from the
mail room 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.
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 (1975), Rocky (1976), and Annie Hall (1977), which won Best Picture Oscars® in
1975, 1976, and 1977, respectively. Other notable films included
Apocalypse Now (1979), Raging Bull (1980), Network (1976) and Coming Home (1978). In 1978, Medavoy
co-founded Orion Pictures where, during his tenure, Platoon (1986), Amadeus (1984),
RoboCop (1987), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Terminator (1984), Dances with Wolves (1990) and
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) were released. In 1990, after twelve successful
years at Orion, Medavoy became chairman of TriStar Pictures, where he
oversaw such critically-acclaimed box office hits as Philadelphia (1993),
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Cliffhanger (1993), The Fisher King (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994) and Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991).
As chairman and co-founder of Phoenix Pictures, Medavoy has brought to
the screen The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996),
U Turn (1997), Apt Pupil (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998), The 6th Day (2000), Basic (2003), Holes (2003), All the King's Men (2006), Zodiac (2007), Pathfinder (2007) and Miss Potter (2006), among others. These
films have received numerous nominations, won two Golden Bears at the
Berlin Film Festival, five Golden Satellite Awards, a cinematography
award for John Toll from the ASC and nominations from the DGA and WGA
for Terrence Malick. "The Thin Red Line" and "The People vs. Larry Flint"
each received Oscar® nominations.
Recently, Phoenix Pictures has released Shutter Island (2010), directed by
Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow; Shanghai (2010), starring John Cusack and Gong Li;
and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010), starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis in 2010. "Black Swan" won numerous awards, including
the Oscar® and Golden Globe for Best Actress (Natalie Portman) as well
as the Independent Film Spirit Awards for Best Feature, Best Director
(Darren Arnofosky), Best Female Lead (Natalie Portman) and Best
Cinematography (Matthew Libatique). Medavoy also recently worked as
executive producer on the documentary, The Wildest Dream (2010).
Medavoy and Phoenix Pictures recently released What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), starring Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, and Chris Rock.
In 2011, Medavoy announced his newest project surrounding the Chilean
mining accident that left 33 men trapped underground for 69 days.
Medavoy will collaborate with Chilean officials and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Jose Rivera to create and authentic retelling of this story.
Also in 2011, Medavoy also announced his collaboration with The
Shanghai Film Group to create both a feature film and six-hour
miniseries. The feature, an adaptation of the novel "The Cursed Piano",
is a love story set in Japanese-occupied China concerning prosecuted
Jews seeking refuge from an occupied Europe. The mini-series, Tears of
a Sparrow (2011), will focus in greater detail on the experience of these Jews
in Shanghai.
Medavoy has received numerous awards, including the 1992 Motion Picture
Pioneer of the Year Award, the 1997 Career Achievement Award from UCLA,
and the Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) at the Cannes Film Festival.
He was awarded the 1999 UCLA Neil H. Jacoby Award, which honors
individuals who have made exceptional contributions to humanity.
Medavoy also received the inaugural Fred Zinnemann Award (2001),
presented by the Anti-Defamation League, the Israel Film Festival's
Lifetime Achievement Award (2002), as well as a Career Achievement
Award from the University of Central Florida (2002). In 2004, he
received the Louis B. Mayer Motion Picture Business Leader of the Year
Award from Florida Atlantic University and in 2005, he was the
recipient of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and Producers
Guild of America Vision Award. Also in 2005, Medavoy was inducted into
the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
In 2007, he received the Stella Adler Actors Studio Marlon Brando Award
and in 2008, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jerusalem Film
Foundation. In 2009, he was given the Honorary Doctorate at the Academy
of Art in San Francisco and was named Chevalier of the French
Government's Legion of Honor. Mike also received the Bernardo O'Higgins
award from the Chilean government on February 16th, 2010. In 2011,
Medavoy received the Raimondo Rezzonico Prize at the Locarno Film
Festival. In 2012, at the 2012 Shanghai International Film Festival, Medavoy
was bestowed with the Outstanding Achievement Award.
Medavoy has also served as chairman of the jury of the Tokyo Film
Festival, advisor to the Shanghai Film Festival and advisor to the St.
Petersburg Festival. He was a member of the board of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts & Sciences from 1977 to 1981. Medavoy 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 New York.
Medavoy has made a mark not only within his industry, but in his
community as well. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the
Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles by 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 and 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 served as a member of the board
of advisers at the Kennedy School at Harvard University for five years.
In 2002, Governor Gray Davis appointed Mike to the California
Anti-Terrorism Information Center's Executive Advisory Board; he is
also a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Homeland
Security Advisory Council. Medavoy is also on the Baryshnikov Arts
Center Advisory Committee in New York, and serves on the advisory board
of the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy.
Throughout his career, Mike Medavoy has also been active in politics.
In 1984, he was Co-Finance Chair of the Gary Hart campaign. He also
actively participated in President Clinton's campaigns in 1992 and
1996. In 2008, he supported the candidacy of Barack Obama, and his
wife, Irena, was the Co-Finance Chair.
In 2002, 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. Mike's new book, entitled American Idol After Iraq;
Competing for Hearts and Minds in the Global Media Age and published in
2009, reflects on the impact of media on U.S. foreign policy with
co-author Nathan Gardels, editor of the National Political Quarterly.
Mike was born in Shanghai, China in 1941 of Russian-Jewish parents, and
lived in Chile from 1947 to 1957. He graduated from UCLA in 1963. He is
married to Irena Ferris Medavoy, a founder of Team Safe-T and a charity
executive and fund raiser for the Industry Task Force. Mike Medavoy has
two sons, Brian Medavoy and Nicholas Medavoy, and resides in Beverly Hills, California.
there's a good chance Mike Medavoy played a role in the success of many
of them. From agent to studio chief to producer, he has been involved
with over 300 feature films, of which 17 have been nominated and 7 have
won Best Picture Oscars®, as well as numerous international film
festival awards.
Medavoy began his career at Universal Studios in 1964. He rose from the
mail room 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.
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 (1975), Rocky (1976), and Annie Hall (1977), which won Best Picture Oscars® in
1975, 1976, and 1977, respectively. Other notable films included
Apocalypse Now (1979), Raging Bull (1980), Network (1976) and Coming Home (1978). In 1978, Medavoy
co-founded Orion Pictures where, during his tenure, Platoon (1986), Amadeus (1984),
RoboCop (1987), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Terminator (1984), Dances with Wolves (1990) and
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) were released. In 1990, after twelve successful
years at Orion, Medavoy became chairman of TriStar Pictures, where he
oversaw such critically-acclaimed box office hits as Philadelphia (1993),
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Cliffhanger (1993), The Fisher King (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994) and Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991).
As chairman and co-founder of Phoenix Pictures, Medavoy has brought to
the screen The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996),
U Turn (1997), Apt Pupil (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998), The 6th Day (2000), Basic (2003), Holes (2003), All the King's Men (2006), Zodiac (2007), Pathfinder (2007) and Miss Potter (2006), among others. These
films have received numerous nominations, won two Golden Bears at the
Berlin Film Festival, five Golden Satellite Awards, a cinematography
award for John Toll from the ASC and nominations from the DGA and WGA
for Terrence Malick. "The Thin Red Line" and "The People vs. Larry Flint"
each received Oscar® nominations.
Recently, Phoenix Pictures has released Shutter Island (2010), directed by
Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow; Shanghai (2010), starring John Cusack and Gong Li;
and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010), starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis in 2010. "Black Swan" won numerous awards, including
the Oscar® and Golden Globe for Best Actress (Natalie Portman) as well
as the Independent Film Spirit Awards for Best Feature, Best Director
(Darren Arnofosky), Best Female Lead (Natalie Portman) and Best
Cinematography (Matthew Libatique). Medavoy also recently worked as
executive producer on the documentary, The Wildest Dream (2010).
Medavoy and Phoenix Pictures recently released What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), starring Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, and Chris Rock.
In 2011, Medavoy announced his newest project surrounding the Chilean
mining accident that left 33 men trapped underground for 69 days.
Medavoy will collaborate with Chilean officials and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Jose Rivera to create and authentic retelling of this story.
Also in 2011, Medavoy also announced his collaboration with The
Shanghai Film Group to create both a feature film and six-hour
miniseries. The feature, an adaptation of the novel "The Cursed Piano",
is a love story set in Japanese-occupied China concerning prosecuted
Jews seeking refuge from an occupied Europe. The mini-series, Tears of
a Sparrow (2011), will focus in greater detail on the experience of these Jews
in Shanghai.
Medavoy has received numerous awards, including the 1992 Motion Picture
Pioneer of the Year Award, the 1997 Career Achievement Award from UCLA,
and the Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) at the Cannes Film Festival.
He was awarded the 1999 UCLA Neil H. Jacoby Award, which honors
individuals who have made exceptional contributions to humanity.
Medavoy also received the inaugural Fred Zinnemann Award (2001),
presented by the Anti-Defamation League, the Israel Film Festival's
Lifetime Achievement Award (2002), as well as a Career Achievement
Award from the University of Central Florida (2002). In 2004, he
received the Louis B. Mayer Motion Picture Business Leader of the Year
Award from Florida Atlantic University and in 2005, he was the
recipient of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and Producers
Guild of America Vision Award. Also in 2005, Medavoy was inducted into
the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
In 2007, he received the Stella Adler Actors Studio Marlon Brando Award
and in 2008, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jerusalem Film
Foundation. In 2009, he was given the Honorary Doctorate at the Academy
of Art in San Francisco and was named Chevalier of the French
Government's Legion of Honor. Mike also received the Bernardo O'Higgins
award from the Chilean government on February 16th, 2010. In 2011,
Medavoy received the Raimondo Rezzonico Prize at the Locarno Film
Festival. In 2012, at the 2012 Shanghai International Film Festival, Medavoy
was bestowed with the Outstanding Achievement Award.
Medavoy has also served as chairman of the jury of the Tokyo Film
Festival, advisor to the Shanghai Film Festival and advisor to the St.
Petersburg Festival. He was a member of the board of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts & Sciences from 1977 to 1981. Medavoy 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 New York.
Medavoy has made a mark not only within his industry, but in his
community as well. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the
Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles by 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 and 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 served as a member of the board
of advisers at the Kennedy School at Harvard University for five years.
In 2002, Governor Gray Davis appointed Mike to the California
Anti-Terrorism Information Center's Executive Advisory Board; he is
also a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Homeland
Security Advisory Council. Medavoy is also on the Baryshnikov Arts
Center Advisory Committee in New York, and serves on the advisory board
of the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy.
Throughout his career, Mike Medavoy has also been active in politics.
In 1984, he was Co-Finance Chair of the Gary Hart campaign. He also
actively participated in President Clinton's campaigns in 1992 and
1996. In 2008, he supported the candidacy of Barack Obama, and his
wife, Irena, was the Co-Finance Chair.
In 2002, 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. Mike's new book, entitled American Idol After Iraq;
Competing for Hearts and Minds in the Global Media Age and published in
2009, reflects on the impact of media on U.S. foreign policy with
co-author Nathan Gardels, editor of the National Political Quarterly.
Mike was born in Shanghai, China in 1941 of Russian-Jewish parents, and
lived in Chile from 1947 to 1957. He graduated from UCLA in 1963. He is
married to Irena Ferris Medavoy, a founder of Team Safe-T and a charity
executive and fund raiser for the Industry Task Force. Mike Medavoy has
two sons, Brian Medavoy and Nicholas Medavoy, and resides in Beverly Hills, California.