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Ron Underwood | |
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 Underwood in 2006 | |
| Born | Ronald Brian Underwood November 6, 1953 Glendale, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California |
| Occupation(s) | Film and television director |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Spouse | Sandy Underwood |
| Children | Larissa, Lana, Lauren |
Ronald Brian Underwood (born November 6, 1953) is an American film and television director, known for directing such films as Tremors (1990), City Slickers (1991), Heart and Souls (1993), and Mighty Joe Young (1998).
Underwood was born November 6, 1953, in Glendale, California. In school he lived in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, as an AFS Intercultural Programs exchange student. After graduating from high school, he briefly attended Occidental College as a pre-med student, but transferred to the USC School of Cinema (now USC School of Cinematic Arts) after deciding to become a filmmaker. Underwood majored in cinema with a minor in anthropology. During a summer break while at USC, he directed the first film produced about the sport of hang gliding. "Hang Gliding: The New Freedom" was distributed by Paramount Communications, a short film division of Paramount Pictures.
Upon completion of his fellowship at the American Film Institute, Underwood began working as a staff director for Barr Films, a company specializing in the production of educational films. Underwood directed over one hundred short films, including an adaptation of the Kurt Vonnegut short story, "Deer in the Works", starring Dennis Dugan. While directing and producing short films for the educational market, Underwood pursued work in the motion picture industry. One of the first movies Underwood worked on was Futureworld (1976) as a production assistant. The film starred Blythe Danner and Peter Fonda, actors he would later direct in 2004. During the filming of Futureworld, one of his tasks was to babysit a young Gwyneth Paltrow while her mother, Ms. Danner, was shooting. Soon after Underwood served as the location manager on the Peter Hyams directed motion picture, Capricorn One (1978). Another early job was acting as assistant director to first-time director David Schmoeller on Tourist Trap , a low-budget horror film. After this he continued to direct and produce educational films and children's television for the next several years. In 1986 Underwood established himself as a director when his live action/stop motion film adaptation of Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle won a Peabody Award, which was followed two years later by the sequel Runaway Ralph , for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination.
Following his critically acclaimed venture into children's television, Underwood moved into directing feature films. His first effort was Tremors [1] starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Michael Gross, and Reba McEntire in her acting debut. Written and produced by his friends Brent Maddock & S. S. Wilson, it was released by Universal Studios in 1990. The film was well received by the critics and later established itself as a cult classic.
Underwood received his first taste of commercial success with 1991's City Slickers , which starred Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance, who won an Academy Award for his performance. The film made $179m worldwide with a budget of only $27m. It was the tenth most successful film released in 1991 (the fifth most successful in the US). His next film, also written by Maddock & Wilson, Heart and Souls (1993), was again well-received by critics but struggled at the box office (making a total of $16m in the US). It starred Robert Downey, Jr., Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, Charles Grodin, Tom Sizemore, Elisabeth Shue and David Paymer. He followed this with Speechless (1994), written by Robert King and starring Michael Keaton, Geena Davis and Christopher Reeve.
Given the opportunity to direct a big-budget film by Walt Disney Pictures in 1998, he was asked to direct Mighty Joe Young , a remake of the 1949 RKO film. The film, starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron in her first lead role, was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects and featured some of the most sophisticated visual effects seen in film up to that point, paving the way for later ape films like Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005). The special effects drove production costs to around $90m.
Following Mighty Joe Young, Underwood began work on the Eddie Murphy fronted The Adventures of Pluto Nash. The film also starred Rosario Dawson, Joe Pantoliano and Pam Grier. The film was greeted with poor reception and became a massive box office disaster.
Underwood returned to his roots, directing both low-budget films and television. He directed Stealing Sinatra (2003) for Showtime, for which William H. Macy received an Emmy nomination, Back When We Were Grownups (2004) based on the Anne Tyler novel which garnered star Blythe Danner a nomination for an Emmy, and In the Mix (2005), starring R&B singer Usher and Chazz Palminteri for Lions Gate Entertainment. He has directed many episodic television dramas, including episodes of Monk , Boston Legal , Ugly Betty , Heroes , Grey's Anatomy , Burn Notice , Once Upon a Time , Desperate Housewives , Nashville , Scandal , Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , The Good Fight , Big Shot , Fear the Walking Dead , Evil , Watson and Elsbeth .
Short film
Director
Other credits
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Futureworld | Production assistant |
| 1978 | Capricorn One | Location manager |
| 1979 | Tourist Trap | First assistant director |
| 1986 | Crawlspace | Associate producer |
| 1996 | Tremors 2: Aftershocks | Executive producer |
| Year | Title | Episode(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | ABC Weekend Special | "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" |
| "Runaway Ralph" | ||
| 2003 | Monk | "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater" |
| "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico" | ||
| 2004 | Boston Legal | "Change of Course" |
| "The Ass Fat Jungle" | ||
| 2007 | Reaper | "Magic" |
| "My Brothers's Reaper" | ||
| "Dirty Sexy Mongol" | ||
| 2008 | The Secret Life of the American Teenager | "Falling in Love" |
| "What Have You Done to Me?" | ||
| "I Feel Sick" | ||
| Ugly Betty | "Ugly Berry" | |
| "Zero Worship" | ||
| Eli Stone | "Owner of a Lonely Heart" | |
| "One More Try" | ||
| 2009 | Make It or Break It | "Where's Kaylie?" |
| Drop Dead Diva | "The 'F' Word" | |
| "Dead Model Walking" | ||
| 2010 | Heroes | "Chapter Twelve: 'Upon This Rock'" |
| Happy Town | "Questions and Antlers" | |
| No Ordinary Family | "No Ordinary Vigilante" | |
| Hellcats | "Worried Baby Blues" | |
| "Finish What We Started" | ||
| Chaos | "Song of the North" | |
| "Love and Rockets" | ||
| "Mincemeat" | ||
| 2011 | Necessary Roughness | "Anchor Management" |
| Harry's Law | "American Girl" | |
| "The Whole Truth" | ||
| 2011–2013 | Castle | "Food to Die For" |
| "Scared to Death" | ||
| 2012 | Burn Notice | "Means and Ends" |
| Desperate Housewives | "What's the Good of Being Good" | |
| 2012–2018 | Once Upon a Time | "Red-Handed" |
| "Into the Deep" | ||
| "Lost Girl" | ||
| "The New Neverland" | ||
| "Snow Drifts" | ||
| "White Out" | ||
| "Best Laid Plans" | ||
| "Mother" | ||
| "The Dark Swan" | ||
| "Firebird" | ||
| "A Bitter Draught" | ||
| "Wish You Were Here" | ||
| "Ill-Boding Patterns" | ||
| "The Song in Your Heart" | ||
| "The Garden of Forking Paths" | ||
| "Breadcrumbs" | ||
| "Is This Henry Mills?" | ||
| 2012–2013 | Scandal | "Hunting Season" |
| "Snake in the Garden" | ||
| 2012–2015 | Grey's Anatomy | "Suddenly" |
| "The Girl With No Name" | ||
| "Things We Said Today" | ||
| "You Got To Hide Your Love Away" | ||
| "All I Could Do Is Cry" | ||
| 2013 | The Glades | "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" |
| "Fast Ball" | ||
| 2014–2015 | Nashville | "We've Got Things To Do" |
| "Unguarded Moments" | ||
| 2014 | Resurrection | "Us Against the World" |
| "Multiple" | ||
| 2014–2016 | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | "A Fractured House" |
| "Devils You Know" | ||
| "Bouncing Back" | ||
| 2016 | Quantico | "Drive" |
| Dead of Summer | "Barney Rubble Eyes" | |
| BrainDead | "Taking on Water: How Leaks in D.C. Are Discovered and Patched" | |
| No Tomorrow | "No Regrets" | |
| 2016–2019 | Hawaii Five-0 | "Ka hale ho 'okauweli" |
| "He kaha lu'u ke ala, mai kolo aku" | ||
| "A'ohe kio pohaku nalo i ke alo pali" | ||
| "Ka la 'au kumu 'ole o Kahilikolo" | ||
| 2017–2018 | The Good Fight | "Stoppable: Requiem for an Airdate" |
| "Day 429" | ||
| "Day 485" | ||
| 2017 | Kevin (Probably) Saves the World | "Dave" |
| 2018–2019 | MacGyver | "Mac + Jack" |
| "Fence + Suitcase + Americium-241" | ||
| 2018–2019 | Magnum P.I. | "The Ties That Bind" |
| "Lie, Cheat, Steal, Kill" | ||
| 2019–2023 | Fear the Walking Dead | "210 Words Per Minute" |
| "The Key" | ||
| "Cindy Hawkins" | ||
| "Sonny Boy" | ||
| "Odessa" | ||
| 2019 | Grand Hotel | "Smokeshow" |
| Evil | "177 Minutes" | |
| 2021–2022 | Big Shot | "TCKS" |
| "Carlsbad Crazies" | ||
| "Everything to Me" | ||
| "BOYS!" | ||
| 2021 | Evil | "C Is for Cop" |
| 2022 | Tales of the Walking Dead | "Evie / Joe" |
| 2022–2024 | La Brea | "The Fog" |
| "Sierra" | ||
| "Don't Look Up" | ||
| 2024 | Elsbeth | "Reality Shock" |
| "Elsbeth Flips The Bird" |
TV movies
| Year | Association | Category | Work | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Daytime Emmy Award | Special Class Directing | ABC Weekend Special | Nominated | Episode Runaway Ralph Shared with John Clark Matthews |
| 1994 | Saturn Award | Best Director | Heart and Souls | Nominated | |
| 2002 | Stinkers Bad Movie Award | Worst Sense of Direction | The Adventures of Pluto Nash | Nominated | |
| 2003 | Razzie Award | Worst Director | Nominated | ||
| 2007 | DGA Award | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs | The Year Without a Santa Claus | Nominated |
Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. Accolades she has received include two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzy Huffstodt on Huff (2004–2006), and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress for her performance in Butterflies Are Free on Broadway (1969–1972). Danner was twice nominated for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for portraying Marilyn Truman on Will & Grace, and the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her roles in We Were the Mulvaneys (2002) and Back When We Were Grownups (2004). For the latter, she also received a Golden Globe Award nomination.
Tremors is a 1990 American monster horror film directed by Ron Underwood, produced by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson, written by Maddock, Wilson, and Underwood and starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, and Reba McEntire.
Walter Jack Palance was an American screen and stage actor, known to film audiences for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, for his roles in Sudden Fear (1952) and Shane (1953), and winning almost 40 years later for City Slickers (1991).
The Adventures of Pluto Nash is a 2002 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Ron Underwood and starring Eddie Murphy, Randy Quaid, Rosario Dawson, Joe Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Luis Guzmán, James Rebhorn, Peter Boyle, Pam Grier, and John Cleese. The film was released in the United States on August 16, 2002.
Back When We Were Grownups is a 2001 novel written by Anne Tyler in memory of her husband, who died in 1997.
The AFI Conservatory is a private non-profit graduate film school in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles. Students learn from the masters in a collaborative, hands-on production environment with an emphasis on storytelling. The Conservatory is a program of the American Film Institute founded in 1969.
Futureworld is a 1976 American science fiction thriller film directed by Richard T. Heffron and written by Mayo Simon and George Schenck. It is a sequel to the 1973 Michael Crichton film Westworld, and is the second installment in the Westworld franchise. The film stars Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, Arthur Hill, Stuart Margolin, John Ryan, and Yul Brynner, who makes an appearance in a dream sequence; no other cast member from the original film appears. Westworld's writer-director, Michael Crichton, and the original studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were not involved in this production. Composer Fred Karlin was retained.
Nina Foch was an American actress who later became an instructor. Her career spanned 6 decades, consisting of over 50 feature films and over 100 television credits. She was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Foch established herself as a dramatic actress in the late 1940s, often playing cool, aloof sophisticates.
Mighty Joe Young is a 1998 American live-action epic adventure film based on the 1949 film of the same name about a giant mountain gorilla brought to a wildlife preserve by a young woman who raised him and a zoologist to protect him from the threat of poachers until one decides to seek his revenge and capture and kill Joe. It was directed by Ron Underwood and starred Bill Paxton, Charlize Theron, Rade Šerbedžija, Naveen Andrews, Peter Firth, Regina King and David Paymer. Creature suit actor John Alexander played the title character, who in this version, is much larger than the original. The film received mixed reviews and was a box-office bomb, grossing $50.6 million in the United States against a $90 million production budget.
Jake Paltrow is an American film director, screenwriter and actor. Coming from a family of actors, he is the younger brother of Gwyneth Paltrow and the son of Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner.
Stampede Entertainment is a film production company founded in the early 90s by producer Nancy Roberts. The original Stampede team consisted of Roberts, screenwriters Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson and director Ron Underwood.
Anjul Nigam is an Indian-born American actor, producer, and writer.
Lucius David Syms-Greene, known as David Greene, was a British television and film director, and actor.
Michael Pressman is an American film and television producer and director.
Braden Danner is an American actor, writer, director and producer who has worked in theatre, television, and film. He is a graduate of The USC School of Cinematic Arts. He gained critical acclaim for his performances on the stage and screen in roles such as Oliver in Oliver! on Broadway, Gavroche in the Original Broadway Cast of Les Misérables, and Buddy McGillis in ABC's One Life to Live, for which he was nominated for The Young Artist Award. While performing in Les Misérables, he also originated the role of Control in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express, making him the first young actor in history to star in two Broadway shows at once. He later starred in the original cast of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club (1989–1996), the Disney television series that launched the careers of such superstars as Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling.
"Chapter 1" is the pilot episode and the first episode of the first season of the American political thriller drama television series House of Cards. It premiered on February 1, 2013, when it was released along with the rest of the first season on the American streaming service Netflix. This episode became the first streaming television webisode to earn Primetime Emmy Awards and nominations. "Chapter 1" was written by series developer Beau Willimon and directed by executive producer David Fincher. The episode also earned 3 other Emmy nominations as well as Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Drama and Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series nominations.
The Tremors franchise consists of a series of American monster comedy-horror films and a spin-off television show, with a plot centered around attacks from subterranean worm-like creatures known as Graboids. It began in 1990 with the release of Tremors, which spawned a series of direct-to-video films and a television series. A second television series was ordered to air on Syfy, and a pilot was shot for the spring of 2018, but the project was ultimately cancelled.
Inside the Third Reich is a 1982 television film based on the book Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer directed by Marvin J. Chomsky. It was originally broadcast on network television by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
Westworld is an American science fiction dystopia media franchise that began with the 1973 film Westworld, written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populated by androids that malfunction and begin killing the human visitors; it was followed by the sequel film Futureworld (1976). The franchise moved to television in 1980 with the series Beyond Westworld on CBS. In 2016, a new television series based on the original film debuted on HBO; the series broadcast four full seasons before being cancelled.
Patrick Melrose is a drama television miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role. The show is based on a series of semi-autobiographical novels by Edward St Aubyn.
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