Background
Jewison, Norman Frederick was born on July 21, 1926 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Son of Percy Joseph and Irene (Weaver) Jewison.
Jewison, Norman Frederick was born on July 21, 1926 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Son of Percy Joseph and Irene (Weaver) Jewison.
Educated at Malvern Collegiate Institute, Toronto, 1944. Bachelor, Victoria College, University Toronto, 1944. Doctor of Laws (honorary), University Western Ontario, 1974.
Doctor of Laws (honorary), University Trent, 1985. Doctor of Laws (honorary), Ryerson Institute, 1986.
After studying at the University of Toronto, Jewison worked in British TV as a writer and actor.
He returned to Canada and in 1958 joined CBS to direct spectaculars. Jewison has long since dissipated the promise of Forty Pounds of Trouble;
The Thomas Crown Affair has shown the depths of hollow prettiness of which he is capable. Yet, he remains unpredictable, a gadfly among directors, lavish with real locations, but indifferent to authenticity so that In the Heat of the Night could have been shot in the studios of the 1940s. With big projects, Jewison has seemed overawed—thus The Cincinnati Kid suffers from Steve McQueens dullness and compares badly with The Hustler; The Russians Are Coming, however, an ostensible loser, is very funny. Forty Pounds of Trouble turned a potentially sentimental picture about a knowing child into a very funny study of Tony Curtis. Nor were the two Doris Day movies as bad as they threatened to be. In the Heat of the Night and Fiddler on the Roof are at least enjoyable hokum, too sophisticated to stress their spurious significance. While directing Jesus Christ Superstar in Israel. Jewison also contrived to produce a Western, Billy Two Hats (73, Ted Kotcheff), in which Oregon Peck plays an elderly Scottish outlaw—with such flexibility can movies perish?
Jewison has continued to produce for others: The Dogs of War (80, John Irvin); Iceman (84, Fred Schepisi); and The January Man (89, Pat O’Connor). His own films included the meritorious Soldier’s Story (note that Jewison was intending to do a Malcolm X film until Spike Lee claimed the project for a black director). Soldier's Story got a best picture nomination, as did the charming Moonstruck, a lightweight work based in generous human observation and a lot of canny acting.
In 1999, Jewison picked up the Irving Thalberg Award. If “picked up” sounds a little casual, the movies have reached a strange point when a Jewison can get that lofty award-one that was kept for the top stream of filmmakers-whereas Jewison has never been better than, say, In the Heat of the Night, a carefully rigged melodrama, and The Hurricane (made in the year of his award), a hideously contrived selling of the facts in the Rubin Carter case. It is all very well to say that no one now remembers Thalberg. In which case, abandon his award.
Served with Royal Canada Navy, 1945-1946. Member Canada Center for Advanced Film Studies (founder, co-chairman 1986), Directors Guild American (goals and purposes committee 1982, award nominations 1966, 67, Outstanding Directorial Achievement award nomination 1984).
Married Margaret Ann Dixon, July 11, 1953. Children: Kevin Jefferie, Michael Philip, Jennifer Annual.