Neal Israel | |
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Born | July 27, 1945 |
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Years active | 1973–present |
Spouses |
Neal Israel (born July 27, 1945) is an American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his comedic work in the 1980s for films such as Police Academy , Real Genius , and Bachelor Party . Israel has also directed episodes for several TV shows, including The Fresh Beat Band , Lizzie McGuire , Zeke and Luther , Dog with a Blog , and I Didn't Do It .
Raised in Manhattan in a Jewish family, [1] Israel started his career on the Broadway stage as assistant to legendary director George Abbott. After working at the New Dramatists Guild and the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference, he came to Los Angeles, and was an executive at both ABC and CBS. During this time he wrote and directed the break through indie hit Tunnel Vision, which introduced such future stars as Chevy Chase, John Candy and Al Franken.
On television, he wrote Ringo, a special that starred Ringo Starr and George Harrison. He then wrote with his partner, Pat Proft, the first Police Academy movie, which spawned six sequels. He directed and co-wrote Bachelor Party , which starred Tom Hanks. He followed this with the comedy Moving Violations . Real Genius , another of his scripts, was made into a successful film starring Val Kilmer, and in 1987, he produced the film Three O'Clock High . He also directed Breaking The Rules starring Jason Bateman and the cult classic Surf Ninjas with Rob Schneider and Leslie Nielsen.
Neal continues to work in both film and television as a writer, director, producer, and script doctor. He has directed numerous movies of the week, pilots, and episodes of shows such as The Wonder Years , Nash Bridges , Joan of Arcadia , and Even Stevens . Recent directing credits include Disney's Zeke and Luther and Kickin It. In 2004, he executive-produced the Academy Award-nominated film Finding Neverland , which starred Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet.
In July 2017, Israel said he was working on a comedy with his longterm partner Pat Proft that will feature stars of the predominant comedic films of the '70s and '80s. [2]
His first marriage was to American singer/songwriter Lori Lieberman. They divorced in 1980. [3] After being hired by director Amy Heckerling to work on Johnny Dangerously , the two began a relationship and married in July 1984. [1] The couple divorced in 1990 after making Look Who's Talking Too together. Israel believed their daughter, Mollie, was biologically his until a DNA test showed she was the biological daughter of director Harold Ramis. [4] [5]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1976 | Tunnel Vision | Yes | Yes | Co-directed with Bradley R. Swirnoff |
1977 | Cracking Up | No | Yes | |
1979 | Americathon | Yes | Yes | |
1984 | Police Academy | No | Yes | |
Bachelor Party | Yes | Yes | ||
1985 | Moving Violations | Yes | Yes | |
Real Genius | No | Yes | ||
1990 | Look Who's Talking Too | No | Yes | |
1992 | Breaking the Rules | Yes | No | aka Sketches |
1993 | Surf Ninjas | Yes | No |
Producer
Executive producer
Director
Producer
Writer
TV movies
Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer |
---|---|---|---|---|
1986 | Combat Academy | Yes | No | No |
1989 | The Cover Girl and the Cop | Yes | No | No |
Dream Date | No | Yes | No | |
1992 | Bonnie & Clyde: The True Story | No | Yes | No |
1993 | Taking the Heat | No | Yes | No |
1995 | Family Reunion: A Relative Nightmare | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1996 | Kidz in the Wood | No | Yes | Yes |
1997 | Dad's Week Off | Yes | No | Yes |
1999 | The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' in Brooklyn Heights | No | No | Yes |
2001 | Hounded | Yes | No | No |
The Poof Point | Yes | No | No | |
2002 | The Brady Bunch in the White House | Yes | No | No |
2003 | National Lampoon's Thanksgiving Family Reunion | Yes | No | No |
Year | Award | Result | Category | Series |
---|---|---|---|---|
1981 | Writers Guild of America Award | Won | Variety, Musical or Comedy | All Commercials... A Steve Martin Special (Shared with Jeffrey Barron, Earl Brown, Carmen Finestra, Denny Johnston, Sean Kelly, Steve Martin, Pat McCormick, Michael McManus, Pat Proft, and Mason Williams) |
2002 | BAFTA Awards | Nominated | Best International | Lizzie McGuire(Shared with Susan Estelle Jansen) |
Illeana Hesselberg, known professionally as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress and filmmaker. She appeared in three episodes of Six Feet Under, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series and won the Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series award from OFTA, the Online Film & Television Association, and in the TV series Action opposite Jay Mohr, for which she won a Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. As of 2015, she can be seen on Turner Classic Movies where she hosts specials focused on unheralded women directors from film history.
Harold Allen Ramis was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. His film acting roles include Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989), and as Russell Ziskey in Stripes (1981); he also co-wrote those films. As a director, his films include the comedies Caddyshack (1980), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Groundhog Day (1993), Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002). Ramis was the original head writer of the television series SCTV, on which he also performed, as well as a co-writer of Groundhog Day and National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). The final film that he wrote, produced, directed, and acted in was Year One (2009).
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age comedy film directed by Amy Heckerling from a screenplay by Cameron Crowe, based on his 1981 book Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, and starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, and Ray Walston. Crowe went undercover at Clairemont High School in San Diego and wrote about his experiences.
Caddyshack II is a 1988 American sports comedy film and a sequel to the 1980 film Caddyshack. Directed by Allan Arkush and written by Harold Ramis and PJ Torokvei, it stars Jackie Mason, Robert Stack, Dyan Cannon, Dina Merrill, Jonathan Silverman, Brian McNamara, Marsha Warfield, Paul Bartel, and Randy Quaid with cameo appearances by Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. It tells the story of a wealthy and widowed real estate developer who goes up against Bushwood County Club's snobbish president in a golfing tournament.
The Lost Patrol is an American rock band whose music falls into the categories of experimental, gothic, post-punk, dark wave, ethereal wave, folk, alternative country, shoegazing, Spaghetti Western and "surf-a-billy". The band uses electric guitars, 12-string acoustic guitars, Moog and other synthesizers.
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Look Who's Talking is a 1989 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Amy Heckerling, and starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. The film concerns the relationship between single mother Mollie (Alley) and her infant son Mikey's babysitter, James (Travolta). Bruce Willis provides the voice of Mikey's precocious thoughts, heard only by the audience. The film also features Olympia Dukakis, George Segal and Abe Vigoda in supporting roles. Produced by M.C.E.G. Productions, Inc. and released on October 13, 1989 by Tri-Star Pictures, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Nevertheless, it was an enormous box office success, grossing $297 million worldwide on its budget of $7.5 million.
Amy Heckerling is an American writer, producer, and director. Heckerling started out her career after graduating from New York University and entering the American Film Institute, making small student films. Heckerling is a recipient of AFI's Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal celebrating her creative talents and artistic achievements. She struggled to break out into big films and was snubbed by Hollywood, up until the release of her breakout film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
Look Who's Talking Too is a 1990 American romantic comedy film, a sequel to Look Who's Talking, and the second installment in the titular franchise, the film was directed by Amy Heckerling from a script she co-authored with Neal Israel. Starring the original cast members John Travolta and Kirstie Alley as James and Mollie Ubriacco, the parents of Mikey, a toddler coping with the newest addition to the family, baby Julie.
Pat Proft is an American comedy writer, actor, and director. Born in Minnesota in 1947, Proft began his career at Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis in the mid-1960s. He went on to perform as a one-man comedy act in the late 1960s. In 1972, Proft began working at The Comedy Store in Hollywood which led to work in television and film writing for the Smothers Brothers and Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker.
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Johnny Dangerously is a 1984 American crime comedy film and a parody of 1930s crime/gangster movies. It was directed by Amy Heckerling; two of its four screenwriters, Jeff Harris and Bernie Kukoff, had previously created the hit series Diff'rent Strokes.
Moving Violations is a 1985 American comedy film based around a traffic school. Directed by Neal Israel, the film stars John Murray, Jennifer Tilly, Brian Backer, Sally Kellerman, Nedra Volz, Clara Peller, Wendie Jo Sperber, Fred Willard, and the film debut of Don Cheadle.
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Ringo is a 1978 American made-for-television comedy film, written by Neal Israel and Pat Proft. It stars Ringo Starr as both a fictionalised version of himself and his fictional doppelgänger, Ognir Rrats. It was broadcast on the US NBC network on 26 April 1978.