Anthony B. Unger | |
---|---|
Born | Manhattan, New York, U.S. | October 19, 1940
Alma mater | University of Southern California |
Occupation | Film producer |
Notable work | Silent Rage Force 10 from Navarone Don't Look Now The Magic Christian Battle of Neretva |
Spouse | Joelle Allain Smadja (m. 1965) |
Children | David A. Unger |
Relatives | Oliver A. Unger (father) Stephen A. Unger (brother) |
Anthony B. Unger (born October 19, 1940) is an American film producer whose 40-year international career includes such titles as Nicolas Roeg's 1973 thriller Don't Look Now as well 1969's Battle of Neretva , The Madwoman of Chaillot , The Magic Christian and The Promise . His 1970 credits include the first color production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and the Ava Gardner vehicle Tam-Lin . In the 1980s he produced The Unseen and Chuck Norris' Silent Rage . [1]
Born in Manhattan, Anthony Unger, also known as Tony, is the son of award-winning film and television producer, distributor and exhibitor Oliver A. Unger. Graduating from the Bronx High School of Science at the age of 16, he attended Duke University from 1957 until December 1959 when the Unger family, including his three sisters and younger brother Stephen A. Unger, moved to Southern California, settling in Beverly Hills. Transferring to the University of Southern California, he graduated from the USC School of Business in 1961.
Unger started out in his early twenties as a television production assistant and coordinator. In 1964 he served as a production coordinator for the May 14 closed circuit broadcast of the Freedom Network, Inc. two-hour Freedom Spectacular, commemorating the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation ruling. The all-star production, screened live in movie theaters and other venues, included Harry Belafonte, Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Sidney Poitier, Tony Bennett, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Kelly, Burt Lancaster and many others. [2] [3] [4]
He then worked as assistant director on such international co-productions as 1965's 24 Hours to Kill , filmed in the Lebanese capital Beirut, and The Face of Fu Manchu , filmed in Ireland.
By 1967 Unger was serving as associate producer on The Desperate Ones , filmed in Madrid and other Spanish locations and, two years later, rose to executive producer on the Yugoslavia-based World War II international epic Battle of Neretva , [5] which ultimately became one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards in April 1970.
He continued to serve as executive producer for a number of other European-based productions — 1969's The Madwoman of Chaillot , filmed in Paris and various locations around France, [6] The Magic Christian, with Peter Sellers, Ringo Starr and an all-star cast, including theme song written by Paul McCartney, filmed in London and numerous locations around England, [7] [8] and The Promise , also filmed in England.
The following year, 1970, was also spent filming in Europe — Julius Caesar , with Charlton Heston as Mark Antony, Jason Robards as Brutus and another all-star cast, shot on location in England and Spain, as well as Tam-Lin , directed by Roddy McDowall, another feature filmed in England.
In 1971, while living in Spain, Tony Unger along with his brother Stephen and two friends, [9] co-founded, built, owned and operated Foster's Hollywood — Spain's first American-food / Hollywood-themed restaurants. He and his partners sold the restaurant chain in 1976. By 2009, Foster's Hollywood grew to become the 11th largest franchise restaurant chain in Europe with over 140 restaurants in Spain. [10] From 1972 to 1976, while maintaining his position with Foster's Hollywood, Unger also served as co-managing director of Ernest W. Hahn Mercantil, the international arm of The Hahn Company, one of the world's largest developers of shopping centers. [11]
Continuing to work on European locations, he served as the executive producer on the critically-praised 1973 psychic thriller, Don't Look Now , based on the story by Daphne du Maurier and filmed primarily in Venice, with a small minority of scenes done in England. [12]
Five years later, in 1978, Tony Unger worked as a co-producer on another World War II epic, Force 10 from Navarone , with his father, Oliver Unger, who produced the film primarily on Yugoslav locations, but also in Malta, England and the Channel Island of Jersey. In 1979, having bought the rights to Jimmy Dean's hit song, "Big Bad John", he and musician-screenwriter Gordon Whitey Mitchell, who turned the song's plot into a vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger, met with Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver at their home. Schwarzenegger happily agreed to play the title role, however, in the late 1970s, no studio executive had confidence in the bodybuilder's potential as a film star and the project went unrealized. [13]
In 1981, Unger served as producer of the horror thriller The Unseen [14] as well as the Chuck Norris vehicle Silent Rage [15] and, in 1984, he and his brother Stephen founded The Unger Co. Based in Hollywood, the corporation was conceived as "a cross fertilization of producing, distributing and co-financing motion pictures and television product". Its most successful activities were in overseas distribution of major studio American films on behalf of such clients as Procines S.A. in Spain, Parkfilm S.A. in Switzerland, Conate S.A. in Chile and Rediffusion Swiss Cable. Some of the motion pictures acquired by the corporation on behalf of its territorial distributors included Amadeus , Cabaret , The Chosen , Intermezzo , Notorious , The Outsiders , Spellbound and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? . [16]
In 1998, a 54-minute documentary, The Dark Side of Hollywood, which focused upon the career hopes and business maneuvers of low-budget filmmakers and the actors who appear in their films, credited three producers, including Anthony B. Unger and, in 2001, one such film, Tart , included in its credits "Special thanks to Tony Unger".
Tony Unger has been married to Paris native Joelle Allain Smadja since 1965. Their son is leading entertainment industry talent manager David A. Unger. [17]
Dear World is a musical with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. With its opening, Herman became the first composer-lyricist in history to have three productions running simultaneously on Broadway. It starred Angela Lansbury, who won the Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical in 1969 for her performance as the Countess Aurelia.
Anthony Leonard Randall was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. In a career spanning six decades, Randall received six Golden Globe Award nominations and six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning one Emmy.
Nigel Sinclair, CBE is a Scottish producer of Hollywood films.
Richard Owen Fleischer was an American film director whose career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave.
Carl Foreman, CBE was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films The Bridge on the River Kwai and High Noon, among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s because of their suspected communist sympathy or membership in the Communist Party.
Philip Roman is an American animator and the director of the Peanuts and Garfield animated specials. He is the founder of the animation studios Film Roman and Phil Roman Entertainment.
Nat Cohen was a British film producer and executive. For over four decades he was one of the most significant figures in the British film industry, particularly in his capacity as head of Anglo-Amalgamated and EMI Films; he helped finance the first Carry On movies and early work of filmmakers such as Ken Loach, John Schlesinger, Alan Parker and David Puttnam. In the early 1970s while head of EMI Films he was called the most powerful man in the British film industry. He's been called "an unsung giant of British film who never got his due from the establishment in part because of anti-Semitism... the ability to be a successful studio head is very rare and most only last a few years. Cohen did it successfully at various companies for over two decades."
Nanette Newman is an English actress and author. She appeared in nine films directed by her husband Bryan Forbes, including Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), The Whisperers (1967), Deadfall (1968), The Stepford Wives (1975) and International Velvet (1978), for which she won the Evening Standard Film Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for another Forbes-directed film, The Raging Moon (1971).
The Madwoman of Chaillot is a 1969 American satirical film made by Commonwealth United Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Ely A. Landau with Anthony B. Unger as associate producer. The screenplay was by Edward Anhalt, based on The Madwoman of Chaillot, Maurice Valency's adaption of La Folle de Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux. The music score was by Michael J. Lewis and the cinematography by Burnett Guffey and Claude Renoir. It was shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice and on location in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Ray Simm.
Fernand Gravey, also known as Fernand Gravet in the United States, was a Belgian-born French actor.
The Madwoman of Chaillot is a play, a poetic satire, by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, written in 1943 and first performed in 1945, after his death. The play is in two acts. The story concerns an eccentric woman who lives in Paris and her struggles against the straitlaced authority figures in her life.
Ely Abraham Landau was an American film producer and production executive best remembered for films of plays in the American Film Theatre series.
Stephen B. Grimes was an English production designer and art director. He won an Oscar and was nominated for two more in the category Best Art Direction.
Stephen A. Unger is an American "leading executive recruiter" who served as managing partner of the media and entertainment divisions at the three largest executive search firms in the world. From 2004 to 2005 he wrote a regular weekly column on leadership for the Daily Variety, a trade publication considered to be the "Bible of Show Business."
Oliver A. Unger was an American film producer, distributor, and exhibitor. In a 45-year career, he was also a television producer and owner of movie theaters and television stations throughout the United States.
David A. Unger is CEO of Artist International Group, a global talent management, branding and content production company representing clients in the fields of film, television and media advisory. Born in London, Unger has served as a talent and literary agent for over 20 years.
Bryna Productions is an American independent film and television production company established by actor Kirk Douglas in 1949. The company also produced a handful of films through its subsidiaries, Michael Productions, Joel Productions and Douglas and Lewis Productions, and outside the United States through Brynaprod. Other subsidiaries included Eric Productions, which produced stage plays, Peter Vincent Music, a music publishing company, Bryna International, a photographic service company, and Public Relations Consultants, which supervised the publicity of its early films. Douglas named the main company after his mother, Bryna Demsky, while its primary subsidiaries were named after his sons: Michael Douglas, Joel Douglas, Peter Douglas and Eric Douglas. In 1970, Bryna Productions was renamed The Bryna Company, when Douglas welcomed his children and second wife into the firm. Nevertheless, Michael, Joel and Peter, wanting to establish individual identities, went on to form their own independent film production companies.
Commonwealth United Entertainment, formerly known as Television Enterprises Corporation and was also known as Commonwealth United Corporation after its parent corporation, was an American film production and distribution company active to 1971. It was headed by Milton T. Raynor.
Kristin Hahn is an American film and television producer, writer and director. Hahn is the founder and president of production company, Hahnscape Entertainment, and the co-founder of production company Echo Films, alongside Jennifer Aniston. Prior to Echo Films, Hahn co-founded Plan B Entertainment with Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt where she served as executive producer on the Academy Award-winning The Departed, and co-producer on The Time Traveler's Wife.
Michael John Lewis is a Welsh-born composer of film, theatre, television, and choral music. He studied harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a brief teaching career in North London he became a full time composer at the age of 24.
Our men in Madrid — Anthony Unger, left, and Mark Brownstein, of Ernest W. Hahn Mercantil, at the site of a planned development in Madrid.