John Dukakis
Encyclopedia
John Dukakis has had a varied career in politics
and entertainment.
but reared in the Boston area. He is the son of Kitty Dukakis and John Chaffetz, a businessman, and the adopted son of former Massachusetts Governor
and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee
Michael Dukakis
, whom his mother married when he was five. His half brother, through his biological father, is Jason Chaffetz
, the U.S. Representative (R) for Utah's 3rd district
.
While attending Brown University
in the mid-1970s, Dukakis was cast in Universal's Jaws 2
. He relocated to Hollywood and continued to work as an actor for the next 6 years. He had substantial roles in the films Making Love
, Delusion and Split Image
and on television in Family Ties
, Little House on the Prairie
, Taxi
and the Jim Jones
docudrama, Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones
. He finished his career in New York working on the Broadway
and Off-Broadway
stage.
as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator
John F. Kerry in Kerry's first two years in office. In 1987, when Michael Dukakis announced his intention to run for President of the United States
. John left Washington and moved to Atlanta, Georgia
to run the Southern campaign for the months prior to the Super Tuesday primaries. Later, as the Democratic National Political Director, he campaigned nationally on behalf of the unsuccessful Dukakis-Bentsen
ticket.
. Within several years the company grew and he was sent to Los Angeles to open an office there with an emphasis on working with other established and developing acts. When he left the company in 1992, the company was also working with Boyz II Men
and Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch.
Dukakis left Bob Woolf to become the general manager of Paisley Park Records, a joint venture between the artist Prince
and Warner Bros. Records. During his tenure, the company released a Prince album as well as projects from George Clinton
and Mavis Staples
.
In 1994, he formed a new venture with his partner, Qadree El-Amin. Southpaw Entertainment was a full service management company. In its early years it primarily focused on the management of Boyz II Men. But after the record-setting success of the 12X platinum "II" album, the company took on new clients. Over the years, Southpaw also handled the careers of Janet Jackson
, Vanessa Williams
, Brownstone
and Blackstreet
.
In early 2002, Dukakis left Southpaw to take a position as an Executive Vice President of Overbrook Music, a music label as well as a full service management company owned and operated by Will Smith
and his partner, James Lassiter
. The company released the multi-platinum-certified soundtrack for the film Wild Wild West
as well as the gold-certified soundtrack for the film Love and Basketball. In addition to Will, the company also manages Christina Vidal
(MCA Records, Nickelodeon's Taina), Jordan Knight
(Interscope Records), Deborah Cox
(J Records), singer/songwriter Javier
(Capitol Records), Singer/songwriter Maria (DreamWorks Records) and Samantha Mumba
(Polydor/Interscope records.
In December 2007, Dukakis returned to Boston to serve as Senior Vice President heading up Hill Holliday's emerging branded-entertainment division.
with his wife and his daughter, Alexandra Jane Dukakis.
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and entertainment.
Early life and acting career
Dukakis was born John A. Chaffetz in San Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
but reared in the Boston area. He is the son of Kitty Dukakis and John Chaffetz, a businessman, and the adopted son of former Massachusetts Governor
Governor of Massachusetts
The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee
United States presidential election, 1988
The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan was unable to seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the...
Michael Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
, whom his mother married when he was five. His half brother, through his biological father, is Jason Chaffetz
Jason Chaffetz
Jason E. Chaffetz is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2009. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district is based in Provo and includes large portions of central and west-central Utah.-Early life, education and career:...
, the U.S. Representative (R) for Utah's 3rd district
Utah's 3rd congressional district
Utah's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. It currently covers nearly all of Utah County and the west side of Salt Lake County, in central and west central Utah....
.
While attending Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in the mid-1970s, Dukakis was cast in Universal's Jaws 2
Jaws 2
Jaws 2 is a 1978 thriller film and the first sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws , which is based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name...
. He relocated to Hollywood and continued to work as an actor for the next 6 years. He had substantial roles in the films Making Love
Making Love
Making Love is a 1982 American film. It tells the story of a married man coming to terms with his homosexuality and the love triangle that develops around him, his wife and another man...
, Delusion and Split Image
Split Image (film)
Split Image is a 1982 film that tells the story of an all-American college athlete who becomes involved in a youth-oriented "cult", and his family's struggle to bring him home...
and on television in Family Ties
Family Ties
Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young...
, Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
, Taxi
Taxi (TV series)
Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...
and the Jim Jones
Jim Jones
James Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in...
docudrama, Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones
Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones
Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, also called The Mad Messiah, is a 1980 television miniseries about the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones, and their 1978 mass suicide at Jonestown. Based on the book by Charles A...
. He finished his career in New York working on the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
stage.
Political career
After retiring from acting, he secured to a job in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
John F. Kerry in Kerry's first two years in office. In 1987, when Michael Dukakis announced his intention to run for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. John left Washington and moved to Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
to run the Southern campaign for the months prior to the Super Tuesday primaries. Later, as the Democratic National Political Director, he campaigned nationally on behalf of the unsuccessful Dukakis-Bentsen
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...
ticket.
Music industry
With the 1988 campaign over, John began work with an attorney in Boston named Bob Woolf who had built a significant international practice representing professional athletes. John ran the music business management department and spent most of his time on a developing local act: New Kids on the BlockNew Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block are an American boy band from Boston, Massachusetts, assembled in 1984 by producer Maurice Starr. The band currently consists of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood.New Kids on the Block enjoyed success in the late 1980s and...
. Within several years the company grew and he was sent to Los Angeles to open an office there with an emphasis on working with other established and developing acts. When he left the company in 1992, the company was also working with Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are the most successful R&B group of all time, having sold more than albums worldwide. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet, but original member Michael McCary...
and Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch.
Dukakis left Bob Woolf to become the general manager of Paisley Park Records, a joint venture between the artist Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
and Warner Bros. Records. During his tenure, the company released a Prince album as well as projects from George Clinton
George Clinton (funk musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
and Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...
.
In 1994, he formed a new venture with his partner, Qadree El-Amin. Southpaw Entertainment was a full service management company. In its early years it primarily focused on the management of Boyz II Men. But after the record-setting success of the 12X platinum "II" album, the company took on new clients. Over the years, Southpaw also handled the careers of Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
, Vanessa Williams
Vanessa L. Williams
Vanessa Lynn Williams is an American pop-R&B recording artist, producer, dancer, model, actress and showgirl. In 1983, she became the first woman of African-American descent to be crowned Miss America, but a scandal generated by her having posed for nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine...
, Brownstone
Brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
and Blackstreet
Blackstreet
Blackstreet is an American R&B group founded in 1991 by Thomas Taliaferro and Teddy Riley, the inventor of New Jack Swing known for his work as a member of Guy. Chauncey Hannibal and Levi Little were signed under production and management contracts with Thomas Taliaferro and were merged into what...
.
In early 2002, Dukakis left Southpaw to take a position as an Executive Vice President of Overbrook Music, a music label as well as a full service management company owned and operated by Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
and his partner, James Lassiter
James Lassiter
James Lassiter is an American film producer. He is actor Will Smith's long-time business partner.-Career:Lassiter attended University of Miami and Temple University and befriended Jeffrey "Jazzy Jeff" Townes, who was in a rap duo with then-musician Will Smith. Lassiter met Smith through Townes,...
. The company released the multi-platinum-certified soundtrack for the film Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...
as well as the gold-certified soundtrack for the film Love and Basketball. In addition to Will, the company also manages Christina Vidal
Christina Vidal
Christina Abbi Vidal is a former American film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in the films Life with Mikey, Brink! , Freaky Friday ,...
(MCA Records, Nickelodeon's Taina), Jordan Knight
Jordan Knight
Jordan Nathaniel Marcel Knight is an American singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer in the boy band, New Kids on the Block , and actor, who rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s. He is best known for his distinctive falsetto style of singing, influenced by The Stylistics. After New Kids On...
(Interscope Records), Deborah Cox
Deborah Cox
Deborah Cox is a Canadian R&B singer-songwriter and actress. Her 1998 song "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" held the record for longest-running number one single on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart , a record held for nearly eight years. She has achieved ten number-one hits on...
(J Records), singer/songwriter Javier
Javier
Javier may refer to:* Javier * San Javier , Spanish-language references to Saint Francis XavierGeography:* Javier, Spain, a town and municipality in Navarre* Javier, Leyte, PhilippinesFictional characters:...
(Capitol Records), Singer/songwriter Maria (DreamWorks Records) and Samantha Mumba
Samantha Mumba
Samantha Tamania Anne Cecilia Mumba is an Irish singer and actress.Her first album was released in 2000. Her most notable role was Mara in the 2002 film The Time Machine. She has also appeared in a number of Irish independent films.-Early life, education and early career:Mumba was born in Dublin,...
(Polydor/Interscope records.
In December 2007, Dukakis returned to Boston to serve as Senior Vice President heading up Hill Holliday's emerging branded-entertainment division.
Personal life
Dukakis lives in Newton, MassachusettsNewton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
with his wife and his daughter, Alexandra Jane Dukakis.