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09-13-2011 09:43 AM |
Hollywood heavy-hitter John Calley — who produced such big-name projects as The Da Vinci Code, Closer, The Remains of the Day (for which he was nominated for an Oscar), and Catch-22 — has passed away at 81.
During his 50+-year career in film, Calley served as chairman and CEO at Sony Pictures Entertainment and studio chief at Warner Bros. and MGM/United Artists. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Calley the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 2009.
Beginning his career in television production in the 1950s producing such classic series as Mr. Ed, Calley would go on to produce for Filmways pics like The Loved One, The Cincinnati Kid, Castle Keep, Ice Station Zebra, Topkapi, The Americanization Of Emily, and Catch-22.
While filming Joseph Heller’s novel of wartime insanity, Calley became identified with a seismic shift in Hollywood’s balance of power, as his official biography notes. “The late 1960s ushered in a new generation of younger filmmakers just as the major studios were discovering the vast potential of the youth market. ‘Kids were kings. After Easy Rider, everything was exploding everywhere,” Calley recalled in a 1999 newspaper interview. ‘We were all young, it was our time, and it was very exciting. The founders were no longer in charge … What had been this rigid, immobile structure had completely come apart, and what was left was a lot of freedom.’”
Calley became head of production, president, and vice chairman of Warner Bros from 1968 until 1981 under the leadership of Ted Ashley and Frank Wells and ownership of Steve Ross. That studio entered a critical and financial heyday with such acclaimed films as Dirty Harry, A Clockwork Orange, McCabe And Mrs. Miller, Deliverance, Enter The Dragon, Mean Streets, The Exorcist, A Star Is Born, What’s Up Doc, Blazing Saddles, The Towering Inferno, Dog Day Afternoon, Jeremiah Johnson, Klute, All The President’s Men, Superman, Barry Lyndon, Chariots of Fire, and Woodstock.
Calley’s memorial will be held at Sony Pictures Studios. He is survived by his daughter Sabrina Calley and step-children Emily Zinnemann, David Zinnemann and Will Firth from his marriage to Meg Tilly.
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