Michael Phillips | |
|---|---|
 Phillips in 1978 | |
| Born | June 29, 1943 |
| Alma mater | Dartmouth College (B.A.) New York University (J.D.) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | Academy Award for Best Picture (1973) Palme d'Or (1976) |
Michael Phillips (born June 29, 1943) is an American film producer.
Phillips was born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. His mother, Shirley, was a schoolteacher and housewife; his father, Larry, was a garment manufacturer. [1] They later became dealers in ancient Asian art. [2] Phillips received a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College and a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law. [3] After being admitted to the New York Bar in 1969, he worked as a securities analyst on Wall Street. In 1971, he and his wife moved to Malibu, California and produced their first film, Steelyard Blues, starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. [3]
In 1972, Phillips along with his then-wife, Julia Phillips, and producer Tony Bill financed the development of the screenplay, The Sting for $3,500 in total. [3] In 1973, the film received the Academy Award for Best Picture. Michael and Julia were the first husband-and-wife team to win the Best Picture award. The couple then produced Taxi Driver (which would go on to win the Palme D'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival) and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind . [4]
In 1984, his production company, Mercury Entertainment, went public with the intention to capitalize on his prior successes. [5] Mercury planned to produce three to five films a year in the $10-million range [5] with operating and development costs to be paid by ABC Motion Pictures while production financing was provided by the major studios. [5] The 1984 film The Flamingo Kid and the 1991 film Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead were not as successful as hoped and in 1992, Philips offered to take the company private repurchasing outstanding stock at seven cents on the dollar. [5] In 1986, he teamed up with Michael Douglas to launch a new company to produce independently financed features, and has option to buy Douglas' company Big Stick Inc. [6] In 2006, Mercury Entertainment was merged with Debmar Studios to form Debmar-Mercury (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment).
The Sting was inducted into the Producers Guild of America's Hall of Fame, granting each of its producers a Golden Laurel Award. [7] In June 2007, Taxi Driver was ranked as the 52nd-best American feature film of all time by the American Film Institute. [8] In December 2007, Close Encounters was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. [9]
He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.
| Year | Film | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Steelyard Blues | |
| The Sting | ||
| 1976 | Taxi Driver | |
| The Big Bus | Executive producer | |
| 1977 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | |
| 1981 | Heartbeeps | |
| 1982 | Cannery Row | |
| 1984 | The Flamingo Kid | |
| 1991 | Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead | Executive producer |
| Eyes of an Angel | Executive producer | |
| 1992 | Mom and Dad Save the World | |
| 1997 | Mimic | Executive producer |
| 2001 | Impostor | Executive producer |
| 2007 | The Last Mimzy |
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Taxi Driver | Political Rally Attendee | Uncredited |
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | David's Dinosaur | Very special thanks |
| Year | Title | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | The Flamingo Kid | Television pilot | |
| 1994 | Jane's House | Executive producer | Television film |
| The Companion | Television film | ||
| 1995 | Trailer Park | Co-executive producer |
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Inside the Legend | Thanks |
Phillips is a Trustee Professor at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, where he taught for several years. [10]
He has been married to writer Juliana Maio since 1987 [11] and has three daughters, Kate, Amanda, and Natasha. [10]
Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana and Frank Vincent. The film is an adaptation of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It follows the career of LaMotta, played by De Niro, his rise and fall in the boxing scene, and his turbulent personal life beset by rage and jealousy.
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and morally bankrupt New York City following the Vietnam War, the film follows Travis Bickle, a veteran and taxi driver, and his deteriorating mental state as he works nights in the city.
The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss. The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had previously directed Newman and Redford in the Western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and written by screenwriter David S. Ward, inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer in his 1940 book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.
Kirk Douglas was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war films. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 films and was known for his explosive acting style. He was named by the American Film Institute the 17th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema.
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AFI Life Achievement Award.
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series Taxi (1978–1983), which won him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. He plays Frank Reynolds on the FX and FXX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2006–present).
The Bad and the Beautiful is a 1952 American melodrama that tells the story of a film producer who alienates everyone around him. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, written by George Bradshaw and Charles Schnee, and stars Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame and Gilbert Roland. The Bad and the Beautiful won five Academy Awards out of six nominations in 1952, a record for the most awards for a movie that was not nominated for Best Picture or for Best Director.
Donald Leo Mischer is an American producer and director of television and live events and president of Don Mischer Productions.
Lionsgate Television is the television division of Lionsgate, which is a Canadian–American entertainment company.
Daniel Mannix Petrie Jr. is a Canadian-American producer, writer, and director of film and television. He is best known for pioneering the sub-genres of action comedy and buddy cop films through films like Beverly Hills Cop and Turner & Hooch. He served as President of the Writers Guild of America, West between 1997 and 1999, and then again between 2004 and 2005. He currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors at the Writers Guild Foundation.
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing television producers, film producers and new media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 8,000 members of the producing establishment worldwide. Its co-presidents are Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher. The PGA is overseen by a board of directors that represents producers from across the nation. Susan Sprung has served as the organization's National Executive Director since 2019.
Gary Douglas Kurtz was an American film producer whose list of credits includes American Graffiti (1973), Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Dark Crystal (1982) and Return to Oz (1985). Kurtz also co-produced the 1989 science fiction adventure film Slipstream, which reunited him with Star Wars star Mark Hamill.
Julia Phillips was an American film producer and author. She co-produced with her husband Michael three prominent films of the 1970s—The Sting, Taxi Driver, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind—and was the first female producer to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, received for The Sting.
David Schad Ward is an American screenwriter and film director. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for his screenplays for the films The Sting (1973) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993), winning for the former. He was also nominated for a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Writers Guild of America Awards.
Debmar-Mercury is a television syndication company. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Lionsgate, it was formed from a merger of Debmar Studios and Mercury Entertainment in 2006.
Chris Donahue is an American film and television producer. He began his career as a producer in television news and documentaries, then transitioned to narrative film and television at the American Film Institute. Donahue's work has been honored with numerous awards including an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film for producing Visas and Virtue (1998), and an Emmy for his documentary Be Good, Smile Pretty (2003). His love for documentaries has him returning to the form often, and his current interests have him exploring themes in Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Immersive Storytelling, and Social Impact Entertainment.
Marc Abraham is an American film producer, director, and former president of Strike Entertainment, a production company he launched in early 2002 with a multi-year, first look arrangement with Universal Pictures.
Arnold Kopelson was an American film producer.
The First Family is an American sitcom that debuted in first-run syndication in the United States on September 22, 2012. Created by Byron Allen and produced by Allen's production company Entertainment Studios, the series is the first situation comedy to air in first-run syndication since the 2000 cancellation of Malibu, CA.
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.
| International | |
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| National | |
