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Jerry Herbert Tokofsky (born April 14, 1936) is an American agent, film producer, and studio executive.
Tokofsky was born in New York City, the son of Julius H. Tokofsky and his wife Rose Trager. [1]
Tokofsky began his connection with the film business as an agent, and by the 1960s had become a studio executive at Columbia Pictures. [2] In 1966, he was a vice-president of Columbia. [3] He then produced films for the studio. [4]
Harrison Ford had an early onscreen role as a bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), on which Tokofsky worked. [4] In 1967, Mike Frankovich assigned the review of Ford’s contract with Columbia to Tokofsky, and he terminated it, [2] telling Ford that when Tony Curtis delivered a bag of groceries, he did it like a movie star. He added, “You ain’t got it, kid!” [3] Ford later revealed in 2023 that Tokofsky had asked him to change his name, saying Harrison Ford was "too pretentious a name for a young man". [5]
By 1968, Tokofsky had become head of Columbia’s creative affairs department, which had the tasks of evaluating scripts and overseeing actors, directors, and producers. He took on Peter Guber as his assistant and later spoke warmly of Guber’s usefulness to him. [6]
By the early 1970s, Tokofsky was producing films for United Artists and others. [7] Born to Win (1971) was the first film by a production company founded by Tokofsky and George Segal.
In the 1980s, Tokofsky was working in the 20th Century Fox television department. One evening, Harrison Ford was dining in the 20th Century Fox Commissary, and a waiter brought him a salver with Tokofsky‘s card on it, on which was written “I missed my shot.” Ford turned around to see where Tokofsky was and found with some pleasure that he could no longer recognize him. [8]
In 1986, at the suggestion of Irvin Kershner, Tokofsky and Stanley Zupnik paid David Mamet one million dollars for the film rights to his award-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross , [9] but it took them several years to raise the money to make the film, as no major studio would touch it.
On February 21, 1956, Tokofsky married Myrna Weinstein, and before divorcing they had two sons; in 1970, he married secondly Fiammetta Bettuzzi, and they had a daughter, but this also ended in divorce; thirdly, on October 4, 1981, he married Karen Oliver. [1]
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Harrison Ford is an American actor. Ford is a leading man in films of several genres and is regarded as an American cultural icon. His films have grossed more than $5.4 billion in North America and more than $9.3 billion worldwide. Ford is the recipient of various accolades, including the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, an Honorary César, and an Honorary Palme d'Or, in addition to an Academy Award nomination.
The More the Merrier is a 1943 American romantic comedy film directed by George Stevens and starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. The film's script—from Two's a Crowd, an original screenplay by Garson Kanin (uncredited)—was written by Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy, and Lewis R. Foster. Set in Washington, D.C., the film presents a comic look at the housing shortage during World War II.
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony.
Rita Hayworth was an American actress. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films in total over 37 years. The press coined the term "The Love Goddess" to describe Hayworth after she had become the most glamorous screen idol of the 1940s. She was the top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II.
Paul Andrew Richter is an American actor, comedian, writer, and talk show announcer. He is best known as the sidekick for Conan O'Brien on each of O'Brien's talk shows: Late Night and The Tonight Show on NBC and Conan on TBS. He was also star of the TV series Andy Richter Controls the Universe. He voiced Mort in the Madagascar film franchise and Ben Higgenbottom in the Nickelodeon animated television series The Mighty B!.
Harry Cohn was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation.
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.
Howard Peter Guber is an American film producer, business executive, entrepreneur, educator, and author. He is chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment. Guber's most recent films from Mandalay Entertainment include The Kids Are All Right, Soul Surfer and Bernie. He has also produced Rain Man, Batman, The Color Purple, Midnight Express, Gorillas in the Mist, The Witches of Eastwick, Missing, and Flashdance. Guber's films have grossed over $3 billion worldwide and received 50 Academy Award nominations.
Glengarry Glen Ross is a 1992 American drama film directed by James Foley and written by David Mamet, based on his 1984 Pulitzer Prize–winning play of the same name. The film depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen, and their increasing desperation when the corporate office sends a motivational trainer to threaten them that all but the top two salesmen will be fired within one week.
Josh Joplin is an American singer, songwriter, as well as music and film producer. He has founded the bands Josh Joplin Group and Among the Oak & Ash. His song "Camera One" was the first independent release to hit #1 at Triple A radio. His song "Blue Skies Again" was recorded by Jessica Lea Mayfield for her Nonesuch debut Tell Me. Pitchfork praised it as, "simple, the infectious chorus makes it a standout...it's also a sunny, reassuring song." Joplin has toured extensively in North America, Europe, and Australia, and has recorded several albums with different bands.
Screen Gems is an American film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation, initially as a cartoon studio, then a television studio, and later on as a film studio. The label currently serves as a film production that specializes in genre films, mainly horror.
Frederick Timmins de Cordova was an American stage, motion picture and television director and producer. He is best known for his work on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Morning Glory is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Roger Michell and written by Aline Brosh McKenna. Starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson and Jeff Goldblum, the film tells the story of an upstart television producer who accepts the challenge of reviving a morning show program with warring co-hosts.
The 2010 Tonight Show conflict was a media and public relations conflict involving the American television network NBC and two of its late-night talk show hosts, Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno, over the timeslot and hosting duties of long-running franchise The Tonight Show.
The Late Shift is a 1996 American made-for-television biographical film directed by Betty Thomas, and written by New York Times media reporter Bill Carter and George Armitage. Released by HBO Pictures and produced in conjunction with Northern Lights Entertainment, the film premiered on HBO on February 24, 1996.
A Time for Killing is a 1967 Western film directed originally by Roger Corman but finished by Phil Karlson. Filmed in Panavision and Pathécolor, it stars Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, Inger Stevens, and Harrison Ford in his first credited film role.
The Garment Jungle is a 1957 American film noir crime film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Lee J. Cobb, Kerwin Mathews, Gia Scala, Richard Boone and Valerie French.
Virginia Van Upp was an American film producer and screenwriter.
Samuel J. Briskin was one of the foremost producers of Hollywood's Golden Age, and head of production during his career at three of the "Big 8" major film studios: Columbia Pictures (twice), Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures. In the late 1950s, he was briefly on the board of directors of another major, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. During World War II, Briskin served in the army's Signal Corps as a film producer, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he co-founded Liberty Films with Frank Capra. They were later joined by William Wyler and George Stevens. The studio only produced two films, but both are now considered classics: It's a Wonderful Life and State of the Union. All three of his brothers were also film producers, as well as one of his sons, and his sister was married to the eventual Chairman of Columbia, where Briskin spent the last decade of his life as a vice-president and head of production until his death in 1968 from a heart attack.
Jacob Cohn was a co-founder of Columbia Pictures Corporation.
