David O. Russell
David Owen Russell (born August 20, 1958) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. His early directing career includes the dark comedy films Spanking the Monkey (1994), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Three Kings (1999), and I Heart Huckabees (2004). He gained critical success with the biographical sports drama The Fighter (2010), the romantic comedy-drama Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and the dark comedy crime film American Hustle (2013). The three films were commercially successful and acclaimed by critics, earning him three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, as well as a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Silver Linings Playbook and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for American Hustle. Russell received his seventh Golden Globe nomination for the semi-biographical comedy-drama Joy (2015).
For similarly named people, see David Russell (disambiguation).
David O. Russell
August 20, 1958
- Film director
- screenwriter
- producer
1987–present
Holly Davis (2007–present)
2
Early life[edit]
David Owen Russell was raised in Larchmont, New York,[1][2] in an atheist, middle-class household.[3][4] His parents worked for Simon & Schuster; his father, Bernard, was the vice president of sales for the company,[1][5] and his mother, Maria, was a secretary there.[6] His father was from a Russian-Jewish family, and his mother was Italian-American (of Lucanian descent).[7][8] His paternal grandfather, a butcher from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, lost many of his relatives in concentration camps.[7]
When he was 13, Russell made his first film for a school project and used a Super 8 film camera to film people in New York City.[9] He attended Mamaroneck High School,[10] where he was voted "Class Rebel".[11] He fell in love with film in his teens (his favorite movies included Taxi Driver, Chinatown, and Shampoo)[1] but aspired to become a writer; Russell started a newspaper in high school and wrote short stories.[6] As his parents worked in the publishing industry, he grew up in a household filled with books.[6][12]
In 1981, Russell received his A.B. degree from Amherst College, where he majored in English and political science.[1][13] He wrote his senior thesis on the United States intervention in Chile from 1963 to 1973.[14]
Ghetto Film School[edit]
David O. Russell was on the board of Ghetto Film School (GFS), an organization founded in 2000 to educate American storytellers.[76] Russell learned about GFS in 2002 from two students who introduced him to Joe Hall, president of Ghetto Film School.[77][78] Shortly after, Russell joined the board of the organization.[79] Along with fellow board members, Russell brought filmmaker friends, industry and movie studio professionals to donate money and lend their time teaching classes to support young black and Latino filmmakers from the South Bronx and Harlem.[80]
On June 16, 2014, Ghetto Film School opened its new branch in Los Angeles.[81] This was thanks in part to Russell with an assist from 21st Century Fox co-COO James Murdoch.[78] In October 2015, Russell and Jim Gianopulos hosted the premiere of Ghetto Film School Los Angeles fellows' thesis film Demon's Gate.[82]
Frequent collaborators[edit]
Editor Jay Cassidy worked with Russell on Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Joy, and Amsterdam. Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten also edited several films for Russell.[83] Producers Dean Silvers, Megan Ellison, and Jonathan Gordon have worked with him two and three times, respectively.[84][85][86] Linus Sandgren was cinematographer for American Hustle and Joy.[87]