Norman Jewison

Filmmakers

Norman Frederick Jewison CC OOnt (July 21, 1926 – January 20, 2024) was a Canadian filmmaker, associated with New Hollywood, he was known for directing films which addressed topical social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences. Born and raised in Toronto, he began his career at CBC Television in the 1950s, moving to the United States later in the decade to work at NBC. Early on he directed the TV movie The Million Dollar Incident (1961), with Jackie Gleason, Everett Sloane, Jack Klugman, and Peter Falk.

He made his feature film directorial debut with the comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962), with Tony Curtis, Suzanne Pleshette, Larry Storch, and Phil Silvers. Other films of the early 1960s include The Thrill of It All (1963), with Doris Day, James Garner, Carl Reiner, Arlene Francis, Reginald Owen, and ZaSu Pitts; Send Me No Flowers (1964), with Rock Hudson, Day, Tony Randall, Hal March, Paul Lynde, Edward Andrews, Patricia Barry, and Clint Walker; The Art of Love (1965), with Garner, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer, Angie Dickinson, Ethel Merman, and Reiner; and The Cincinnati Kid (1965), with Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Ann-Margret, Karl Malden, Tuesday Weld, Joan Blondell, Rip Torn, and Jack Weston.

He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Picture for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), with Alan Arkin, Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Brian Keith, Theodore Bikel, Jonathan Winters, John Phillip Law, Tessie O’Shea, Ben Blue, Andrea Dromm, and Paul Ford; followed by his first Best Director nomination for In The Heat of the Night (1967), with Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, and Lee Grant. Other films in the films in the late 1960s include The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), with McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke, Weston, Biff McGuire, Addison Powell, Gordon Pinsent, and Yaphet Kotto; and Gaily, Gaily (1969), with Beau Bridges, Brian Keith, George Kennedy, Hume Cronyn, and Melina Mercouri.

He received his second Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Bear Picture for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), with Chaim Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon, Paul Mann, Rosalind Harris, Michèle Marsh, Neva Small, and Paul Michael Glaser. Other films in the 1970s include Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), with Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman, and Barry Dennen; Rollerball (1975), with James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn, and Ralph Richardson; F.I.S.T. (1978), with Sylvester Stallone, Steiger, Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon, David Huffman, Kevin Conway, and Tony Lo Bianco; and …And Justice for All (1979), with Al Pacino, Jack Warden, John Forsythe, Lee Strasberg, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Lahti, Craig T. Nelson, Thomas Waites, and Sam Levene.

He received his third Best Picture Academy Award nomination for A Soldier’s Story (1984), with Howard Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar, Art Evans, David Alan Grier, Larry Riley, David Harris, Robert Townsend, Patti LaBelle, Denzel Washington, Trey Wilson, and Wings Hauser; and third Best Director and fourth Best Picture nomination for Moonstruck (1987), with Cher, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, and Danny Aiello. Other films in the 1980s include Best Friends (1982), with Burt Reynolds, Goldie Hawn, Jessica Tandy, Barnard Hughes, Audra Lindley, Keenan Wynn, and Ron Silver; Agnes of God (1985), with Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, and Meg Tilly; and In Country (1989), with Bruce Willis, Emily Lloyd, and Joan Allen.

Films in the 1990s to 2000s include Other People’s Money (1991), with Danny DeVito, Gregory Peck, Penelope Ann Miller, Piper Laurie, and Dean Jones; Only You (1994), with Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., Bonnie Hunt, Joaquim de Almeida, Fisher Stevens, and Billy Zane; Bogus (1996), with Whoopi Goldberg, Gérard Depardieu, Haley Joel Osment, Nancy Travis, and Andrea Martin; The Hurricane (1999), with Washington, John Hannah, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber, Vicellous Reon Shannon, David Paymer, Dan Hedaya, Harris Yulin, and Steiger; the TV movie Dinner with Friends (2001), with Dennis Quaid, Andie MacDowell, Greg Kinnear, and Toni Collette; The Statement (2003), with Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Northam, Alan Bates, William Hutt, John Neville, and Charlotte Rampling.

He also acted as producer on Hal Ashby’s The Landlord (1970), with Bridges, Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, Louis Gossett Jr., and Walter Brooke; Ted Kotcheff’s Billy Two Hats (1974), with Peck, Warden, Desi Arnaz Jr., and David Huddleston; John Irvin’s The Dogs of War (1980), with Christopher Walken, Tom Berenger, Colin Blakely, Hugh Millais, Paul Freeman, Jean-François Stévenin, and JoBeth Williams; Fred Schepisi’s Iceman (1984), with Timothy Hutton, Lindsay Crouse, John Lone, Josef Sommer, David Strathairn, Philip Akin, and Danny Glover; and Pat O’Connor’s The January Man (1989), with Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Harvey Keitel, Aiello, Steiger, Alan Rickman, and Bill Cobbs.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • The Secret World of Eddie Hodges (1960) – TV movie
  • The Million Dollar Incident (1961) – TV movie
  • 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962)
  • The Thrill of It All (1963)
  • Send Me No Flowers (1964)
  • The Art of Love (1965)
  • The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
  • The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)
  • In the Heat of the Night (1967)**
  • The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
  • Gaily, Gaily (1969)
  • The Landlord (1970) – directed by Hal Ashby – producer
  • Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
  • Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
  • Billy Two Hats (1974) -directed by Ted Kotcheff – producer
  • Rollerball (1975)
  • F.I.S.T. (1978)
  • …And Justice for All (1979)
  • The Dogs of War (1980) – directed by John Irvin – producer
  • Best Friends (1982)
  • Iceman (1984) – directed by Fred Schepisi – producer
  • A Soldier’s Story (1984)
  • Agnes of God (1985)
  • Moonstruck (1987)
  • The January Man (1989) directed by Pat O’Connor – producer
  • In Country (1989)
  • Other People’s Money (1991)
  • Geronimo (1993) – directed by Roger Young – executive producer – TV
  • Dance Me Outside (1994) – directed by Bruce McDonald – executive producer
  • Only You (1994)
  • The Stupids (1996) – directed by John Landis – cameo
  • Bogus (1996)
  • An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) – directed by Arthur Hiller (as Alan Smithee) – uncredited cameo as himself
  • The Hurricane (1999)
  • Dinner with Friends (2001) – TV movie
  • The Statement (2003)