Academy Award winning filmmaker Norman Jewison, who directed classics such as Moonstruck, Fiddler on the Roof and Jesus Christ, Superstar has died.His publicist confirmed the Toronto native passed away “peacefully” at his Los Angeles home on the weekend. He was 97 years old.The multiple Oscar nominee was known for stirring up controversy with his introspective films, addressing civil rights and religion with sensitivity and respect."I have tended to show humanity as fallible, sensitive, befuddled, misled but redeemable, rather than mindless, relentlessly violent," he said in his 2004 autobiography, This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me.."I have tended to show humanity as fallible, sensitive, befuddled, misled but redeemable, rather than mindless, relentlessly violent,"Norman Jewison.He was often mistaken for being Jewish due to his surname and association with Fiddler on the Roof, but his family were Protestants of English descent. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War and after being discharged in 1945 travelled extensively through the American South where he chronicled segregation.He was an assistant director at the CBC when it went on the air in 1952 before relocating to New York in 1958 to work for NBC on the Andy Williams Show, among others.The television special that was pivotal to his future aspirations was the 1961 Judy Garland comeback which led to a film career directing the comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble starring Tony Curtis in 1962. It was the first motion picture ever filmed at Disneyland..In 1981, he announced the cancellation of the 53rd Academy Awards which was scheduled to be aired the day former US president Ronal Reagan was shot.His 1967 film In the Heat of the Night starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger took home five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. It was notable for showing an African-American man slapping a Caucasian on screen."I couldn't understand why a country would ask young men to go and fight and die for America and then when they came home they had to sit on the back of the bus," he told attendees at a Toronto event on the black experience in film in February 2010. The list of the many bonfire stars he worked with included Cher, Al Pacino, Michael Caine and Clint Eastwood. He was also a Member of the Order of Canada.
Academy Award winning filmmaker Norman Jewison, who directed classics such as Moonstruck, Fiddler on the Roof and Jesus Christ, Superstar has died.His publicist confirmed the Toronto native passed away “peacefully” at his Los Angeles home on the weekend. He was 97 years old.The multiple Oscar nominee was known for stirring up controversy with his introspective films, addressing civil rights and religion with sensitivity and respect."I have tended to show humanity as fallible, sensitive, befuddled, misled but redeemable, rather than mindless, relentlessly violent," he said in his 2004 autobiography, This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me.."I have tended to show humanity as fallible, sensitive, befuddled, misled but redeemable, rather than mindless, relentlessly violent,"Norman Jewison.He was often mistaken for being Jewish due to his surname and association with Fiddler on the Roof, but his family were Protestants of English descent. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War and after being discharged in 1945 travelled extensively through the American South where he chronicled segregation.He was an assistant director at the CBC when it went on the air in 1952 before relocating to New York in 1958 to work for NBC on the Andy Williams Show, among others.The television special that was pivotal to his future aspirations was the 1961 Judy Garland comeback which led to a film career directing the comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble starring Tony Curtis in 1962. It was the first motion picture ever filmed at Disneyland..In 1981, he announced the cancellation of the 53rd Academy Awards which was scheduled to be aired the day former US president Ronal Reagan was shot.His 1967 film In the Heat of the Night starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger took home five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. It was notable for showing an African-American man slapping a Caucasian on screen."I couldn't understand why a country would ask young men to go and fight and die for America and then when they came home they had to sit on the back of the bus," he told attendees at a Toronto event on the black experience in film in February 2010. The list of the many bonfire stars he worked with included Cher, Al Pacino, Michael Caine and Clint Eastwood. He was also a Member of the Order of Canada.
