Norman Jewison
Norman Frederick Jewison CC OOnt (July 21, 1926 – January 20, 2024) was a Canadian filmmaker. He was known for directing films which addressed topical social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences. Among numerous other accolades, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades, for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and Moonstruck (1987). He was nominated for an additional four Oscars, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, and won a BAFTA Award. He received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999.[1]
Norman Jewison
January 20, 2024 (aged 97)
Victoria College (B.A., 1949)
- Director
- producer
- screenwriter
1950–2003
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Margaret Ann Dixon(m. 1953; died 2004)
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Lynne St. David(m. 2010)
3
Born and raised in Toronto, Jewison began his career at CBC Television in the 1950s, moving to the United States later in the decade to work at NBC. He made his feature film debut in 1962, with the comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble, and embarked on a motion picture directing career that spanned over 40 years. His notable films included The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Rollerball (1975), F.I.S.T. (1978), ...And Justice for All (1979), A Soldier's Story (1984), Agnes of God (1985), and The Hurricane (1999).
In 1988, Jewison founded the Canadian Film Centre. In 2003, he received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement for his multiple contributions to the film industry in Canada.[2] He was Chancellor of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, his alma mater, from 2004 until 2010.
Early life and education[edit]
Jewison was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Dorothy Irene (née Weaver) and Percy Joseph Jewison (1890–1974),[3] who managed a convenience store and post office.[4] He attended Kew Beach School and Malvern Collegiate Institute, and while growing up in the 1930s displayed an aptitude for performing and theatre. He was often mistaken for being Jewish due to his surname and direction of Fiddler on the Roof, but Jewison and his family are Protestants (Methodists[5]) of English descent.[6] He served in the Royal Canadian Navy (1944–1945) during World War II, and after being discharged travelled in the American South, where he encountered segregation, an experience that influenced his later work.[7]
Jewison attended Victoria College in the University of Toronto, graduating with a B.A. in 1949. As a student, he was involved in writing, directing, and acting in various theatrical productions, including the All-Varsity Revue in 1949. Following graduation, he moved to London, where he worked sporadically as a script writer for a children's television program and bit part actor for the BBC, while supporting himself with odd jobs. Out of work in Britain in late 1951, he returned to Canada to become a production trainee at CBLT in Toronto, which was preparing for the launch of CBC Television.[8]