John Daly (producer)
Encyclopedia
John Daly was a British film producer
.
, a part of London which was badly bombed and damaged in World War II
. He attended a Roman Catholic school. Daly was father to Jenny, Michael, Julian, and Timothy. Daly's son Timothy is not the actor Tim Daly.
, Daly formed Hemdale Film Corporation
in 1967. Hemdale had many diverse entertainment business interests, and grew rapidly in the 1970s by managing bands such as Yes
, Black Sabbath
and many other well-known UK artists. The company also acquired the worldwide stage rights for Lionel Bart
's musical Oliver!
, along with producing Grease
starring Richard Gere
. Hemdale also acquired an ownership interest in a TV company, its own film studios, and an off-track betting company chain of shops.
Hemdale began producing, financing and distributing its own full-length feature films, becoming a leading independent film company in Britain with films such as Melody
, Tommy
, The Triple Echo
and Images
by Robert Altman
.
Hemdale gave career starts to actors such as Keanu Reeves
, Denzel Washington
, and Julia Roberts
. It also gave chances to many young, first-time directors including James Cameron
(The Terminator
); Oliver Stone
(Salvador
, Platoon
); Mick Jackson
(The Bodyguard
); Martin Campbell
(James Bond
and The Legend of Zorro
); Michael Apted
(Coal Miner's Daughter
); Robert Altman
(Images
); John Schlesinger
(The Falcon and the Snowman
), along with many other notable directors such as Ken Loach
(Hidden Agenda
); Harold Becker
(The Boost
); Gillian Armstrong
(High Tide); Tim Hunter
(River's Edge
) and James Foley
(At Close Range
). Under Daly, Hemdale made over 100 films, grossing over $1.5 billion dollars.
In 1974, Don King was trying to promote "The Rumble in the Jungle
" heavyweight boxing match between Muhammad Ali
and George Foreman
. He turned to Daly, who together with Video Techniques Inc. (of which King was a director), were the official co-promoters.
In 1994, Daly conceived the High Noon in Hong Kong
boxing event, investing at least $800,000 of his own money, but it was canceled at the last minute after Barry Hearn
withdrew his boxers when no purses was forthcoming. 'My end of the deal was kept,' Daly argued. 'I had to arrange the stadium, air fares and all the pre-fight promotional expenses, which I did, but the purses were not part of my obligation.'
On behalf of his companies, Daly achieved 21 Oscar nominations and 13 wins, including back-to-back 'Best Picture' wins for Platoon
and The Last Emperor
(as executive producer, shared with the film's producer Jeremy Thomas
), an unequaled achievement in independent filmmaking.
Throughout his forty year career, Daly won numerous awards at the Golden Globes, the Cannes Film Festival
, the Berlin Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Houston Film Festival, along with many other prizes.
In 2004, Daly produced, co-wrote and directed The Aryan Couple, starring Oscar winner Martin Landau
, which received numerous awards at international film festivals. Daly also directed The Box Collector for Corsan Productions.
From 2003, Daly acted as Chairman, CEO and President of Film and Music Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries. In May 2008, Daly took a leave of absence from his executive duties. He remained chairman until his death.
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
.
Personal life
John Daly was born in South East LondonSouth East (London sub region)
The South East is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lewisham and Southwark. The sub region was established in 2008. The south east has a population of 1,300,000 and is the location of 500,000 jobs...
, a part of London which was badly bombed and damaged in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He attended a Roman Catholic school. Daly was father to Jenny, Michael, Julian, and Timothy. Daly's son Timothy is not the actor Tim Daly.
Career
With David HemmingsDavid Hemmings
David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English film, theatre and television actor as well as a film and television director and producer....
, Daly formed Hemdale Film Corporation
Hemdale Film Corporation
Hemdale Film Corporation, known as Hemdale Communications after 1993, was an independent film production company and distributor founded in London in 1967 as the Hemdale Company by actor David Hemmings and his manager, John Daly. Hemdale was initially founded as a talent agency that helped launch...
in 1967. Hemdale had many diverse entertainment business interests, and grew rapidly in the 1970s by managing bands such as Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
, Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
and many other well-known UK artists. The company also acquired the worldwide stage rights for Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!-Early life:...
's musical Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
, along with producing Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
starring Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
. Hemdale also acquired an ownership interest in a TV company, its own film studios, and an off-track betting company chain of shops.
Hemdale began producing, financing and distributing its own full-length feature films, becoming a leading independent film company in Britain with films such as Melody
Melody (1971 film)
Melody is a 1971 British film directed by Waris Hussein about "puppy love". It was released as S.W.A.L.K. in the United Kingdom . The film starred Jack Wild, Mark Lester and Tracy Hyde...
, Tommy
Tommy (film)
Tommy is a 1975 British musical film based upon The Who's 1969 rock opera album musical Tommy. It was directed by Ken Russell and featured a star-studded cast, including the band members themselves...
, The Triple Echo
The Triple Echo
The Triple Echo is a 1972 British drama film directed by Michael Apted starring Glenda Jackson, Brian Deacon and Oliver Reed, and based on a novel by H. E...
and Images
Images (film)
Images is a 1972 British-American psychological thriller film directed by Robert Altman.-Plot:Wealthy housewife and children's author Cathryn receives a series of disturbing and eerie phone calls in her home in London one dreary night...
by Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
.
Hemdale gave career starts to actors such as Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
, Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
, and Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
. It also gave chances to many young, first-time directors including James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
(The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
); Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
(Salvador
Salvador (film)
Salvador is a 1986 war drama film which tells the story of an American journalist in El Salvador covering the Salvadoran civil war. While trying to get footage, he becomes entangled with both leftist guerrillas and the right wing military...
, Platoon
Platoon (film)
Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and stars Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, followed by 1989's Born on the Fourth of July and 1993's Heaven & Earth....
); Mick Jackson
Mick Jackson (film director)
Mick Jackson is a British television and film director, television producer and author. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for Temple Grandin .-Selected filmography:...
(The Bodyguard
The Bodyguard
The Bodyguard is a 1992 American romantic-thriller film starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. Costner stars as a former Secret Service Agent turned bodyguard who is hired to protect Houston's character, a music star, from an unknown stalker. Lawrence Kasdan wrote the film in the 1970s,...
); Martin Campbell
Martin Campbell
-Life and career:Campbell was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He directed two James Bond films, 1995's GoldenEye, starring Pierce Brosnan, and 2006's Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, and was the first Bond director since John Glen to direct more than one film, as well as the oldest director in...
(James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
and The Legend of Zorro
The Legend of Zorro
The Legend of Zorro is a 2005 sequel to The Mask of Zorro , both directed by Martin Campbell. Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones reprise their roles as the titular hero and his spouse, and Rufus Sewell stars as the villain...
); Michael Apted
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...
(Coal Miner's Daughter
Coal Miner's Daughter
Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 American biographical film which tells the story of country music icon Loretta Lynn. It stars Sissy Spacek in her Academy Award for Best Actress winning role, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo and Levon Helm, and was directed by Michael Apted.-Background:The film was...
); Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
(Images
Images (film)
Images is a 1972 British-American psychological thriller film directed by Robert Altman.-Plot:Wealthy housewife and children's author Cathryn receives a series of disturbing and eerie phone calls in her home in London one dreary night...
); John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
(The Falcon and the Snowman
The Falcon and the Snowman
The Falcon and the Snowman is a 1985 film directed by John Schlesinger about two young American men, Christopher Boyce and Daulton Lee , who sold U.S. security secrets to the Soviet Union...
), along with many other notable directors such as Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
(Hidden Agenda
Hidden Agenda (1990 film)
Hidden Agenda , directed by Ken Loach, is a political thriller about British terrorism in Northern Ireland that includes the assassination of an American civil rights lawyer.-Plot and historical context:...
); Harold Becker
Harold Becker
Harold Becker is American film director and producer from New York.-Biography:After studying art and photography at the Pratt Institute, Becker began his career as a still photographer, but later tried his hand at directing television commercials, short films and documentaries...
(The Boost
The Boost
The Boost is a 1988 drama film directed by Harold Becker. It stars James Woods, Sean Young, John Kapelos, Steven Hill, June Chandler and -- in her final role and first Hollywood film in 33 years -- Amanda Blake.-Plot:...
); Gillian Armstrong
Gillian Armstrong
Gillian May Armstrong is an award-winning Australian director of feature films and documentaries.- Career :Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Gillian Armstrong grew up in the eastern suburb of Mitcham. She graduated from Swinburne Technical College in 1968 where she studied theatrical costume design and...
(High Tide); Tim Hunter
Tim Hunter (director)
Tim Hunter is an American television and film director. Since the late 1980s he has mostly worked on television, directing episodes for dozens of televisions series includingBreaking Bad,Carnivàle,...
(River's Edge
River's Edge
River's Edge is a 1986 American drama film written by Neal Jimenez and starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck, and Dennis Hopper.It was awarded Best Picture from the Independent Spirit Awards in 1986.- Plot :...
) and James Foley
James Foley
James Foley is an American film director and screenwriter. He was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, the son of a lawyer...
(At Close Range
At Close Range
At Close Range is a film based on the real life rural Pennsylvania crime family led by Bruce Johnston, Sr. which operated during the 1960s and 1970s. It was released on April 18, 1986, and stars Sean Penn, Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, Mary Stuart Masterson, Millie Perkins, Candy Clark and...
). Under Daly, Hemdale made over 100 films, grossing over $1.5 billion dollars.
In 1974, Don King was trying to promote "The Rumble in the Jungle
The Rumble in the Jungle
The Rumble in the Jungle was a historic boxing event that took place on October 30, 1974, in the Mai 20 Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire . It pitted then world Heavyweight champion George Foreman against former world champion and challenger Muhammad Ali...
" heavyweight boxing match between Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
and George Foreman
George Foreman
George Edward Foreman is an American two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Olympic gold medalist, ordained Baptist minister, author and successful entrepreneur...
. He turned to Daly, who together with Video Techniques Inc. (of which King was a director), were the official co-promoters.
In 1994, Daly conceived the High Noon in Hong Kong
High Noon in Hong Kong
High Noon in Hong Kong was a World Boxing Organisation sanctioned boxing event, it was to feature 4 fights: a heavyweight title fight between Herbie Hide and Tommy Morrison; Steve Collins versus American Lonnie Beasley for the WBO middleweight title; Billy Schwer would challenge Rafael Ruelas for...
boxing event, investing at least $800,000 of his own money, but it was canceled at the last minute after Barry Hearn
Barry Hearn
Barry Hearn is an English sporting events promoter, and the founder and chairman of promotions company Matchroom Sport. He is currently the chairman of Leyton Orient F.C., and the Professional Darts Corporation and was also until July 2010 chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker...
withdrew his boxers when no purses was forthcoming. 'My end of the deal was kept,' Daly argued. 'I had to arrange the stadium, air fares and all the pre-fight promotional expenses, which I did, but the purses were not part of my obligation.'
On behalf of his companies, Daly achieved 21 Oscar nominations and 13 wins, including back-to-back 'Best Picture' wins for Platoon
Platoon (film)
Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and stars Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, followed by 1989's Born on the Fourth of July and 1993's Heaven & Earth....
and The Last Emperor
The Last Emperor
The Last Emperor is a 1987 biopic about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, whose autobiography was the basis for the screenplay written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci. Independently produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was directed by Bertolucci and released in 1987 by Columbia Pictures...
(as executive producer, shared with the film's producer Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy Jack Thomas, CBE is a British film producer, founder of the Recorded Picture Company. He was the producer of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2006 he received a European Film Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World...
), an unequaled achievement in independent filmmaking.
Throughout his forty year career, Daly won numerous awards at the Golden Globes, the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, the Berlin Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Houston Film Festival, along with many other prizes.
In 2004, Daly produced, co-wrote and directed The Aryan Couple, starring Oscar winner Martin Landau
Martin Landau
Martin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
, which received numerous awards at international film festivals. Daly also directed The Box Collector for Corsan Productions.
From 2003, Daly acted as Chairman, CEO and President of Film and Music Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries. In May 2008, Daly took a leave of absence from his executive duties. He remained chairman until his death.