Celebrity Biographies
Norman Jewson
Known especially for his strong social commitment, Norman Jewison is a Canadian director, producer and actor who has directed such well-known films as Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck . In his filmography, he has dealt with issues that no one else dared to touch and, with this, he has tried to make the viewer aware. He is also popular for his adaptations of plays from Broadway.
Norman Jewison was born in Toronto on July 21, 1926. He graduated from the University of that city and later served in the Navy during World War II. As a young man he traveled through the southern United States in the 1950s, where he was sensitive to the starkest cases of inequality and racism. This human experience marked him for his entire life and can be seen reflected in most of his films.
His Hollywood debut was Bachelor in Troubles (1962), a comedy starring Tony Curtis . It would be followed by films like Don’t Send Me Flowers (1964) and The Art of Loving (1965), two nice and successful romantic comedies. His first big success came with In the Heat of the Night (1967), an interesting thriller with racist overtones starring Sidney Poitier . In 1965 he directed Steve McQueen in the estimable The King of the Game , and three years later he repeated with the actor in The Thomas Crown Affair , a film about robberies that deals with the passionate story between McQueen and Faye Dunaway. Actors Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo replaced the original performers in a remake in 1999.
He achieved popularity in 1971 with the musical Fiddler on the Roof , a film adaptation of the famous Broadway musical. The film, which has an unforgettable soundtrack, talks about the life of a Jewish town in Ukraine at the height of the tsarist era. He deals with themes such as love, suffering or hope and he does so, moreover, with an impeccable tone of humor. This was not the only Broadway adaptation Jewison has done. Two years later he presented Jesus Christ Superstar , a musical that narrated the betrayal, passion and crucifixion of Jesus.
The director delved into a complicated subject in A Soldier’s Story (1984) when dealing with racism in the army. Thus, he once again demonstrated his strong social commitment and denounced a delicate matter in order to raise public awareness. A year later he directed the unsuccessful Agnes de Dios , where only the performances of the leading actresses Jane Fonda and Anne Bancroft stood out . In 1987 he trusted Cher for the main role of Moonstruck , a hilarious romantic comedy that earned the actress a well-deserved Oscar. His last notable film was Hurricane Carter .(1999), based on the true story of black boxer Rubin “Huracán” Carter, sentenced to twenty years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Once again, Jewison spoke in his work about racism and social injustice. His last work was The Sentence (2003), a thriller starring Michael Caine and Tilda Swinton .
Norman Jewison was unsuccessfully nominated numerous times for an Oscar in the Best Director category. Finally, in 1998 he was awarded the coveted statuette for his career as a whole.