Norman Frederick Jewison

Norman Frederick Jewison CC OOnt (July 21, 1926 – January 20, 2024) was a Canadian film and television director, producer.

Jewison addressed social and political issues throughout his filmmaking career, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences. He received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999. He received a BAFTA Award and was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Jewison directed numerous feature films and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Moonstruck (1987). Other highlights of his directing career include 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Rollerball (1975), F.I.S.T. (1978), ...And Justice for All (1979), Best Friends (1982), A Soldier's Story (1984), Agnes of God (1985), Other People's Money (1991), Only You (1994), The Hurricane (1999), and The Statement (2003).

In 1988 he founded the Canadian Film Centre. In 2003, Jewison received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement for his multiple contributions to the film industry in Canada.

Early life and education

Jewison was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Dorothy Irene (née Weaver) and Percy Joseph Jewison (1890–1974), who managed a convenience store and post office. 

He attended Kew Beach School and Malvern Collegiate Institute, and while growing up in the 1930s displayed an aptitude for performing and theatre. He is often mistaken for being Jewish due to his surname and direction of Fiddler on the Roof, but Jewison and his family are Protestants of English descent. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy (1944–1945) during World War II, and after being discharged travelled in the American South, where he encountered segregation, an experience that influenced his later work.

Jewison attended Victoria College in the University of Toronto, graduating with a B.A. in 1949. As a student, he was involved in writing, directing and acting in various theatrical productions, including the All-Varsity Revue in 1949. Following graduation, he moved to London, where he worked sporadically as a script writer for a children's TV program and bit part actor for the BBC, while supporting himself with odd jobs. Out of work in Britain in late 1951, he returned to Canada to become a production trainee at CBLT in Toronto, which was preparing for the launch of CBC Television.

Personal life

Norman Jewison and Margaret Ann Dixon married on July 11, 1953. She died on November 26, 2004, the day following her 74th birthday, in Orangeville, Ontario, from undisclosed causes. They have three children and five grandchildren.

In recognition of his contributions to the arts, as well as his sustained support, Jewison was installed as Chancellor of Victoria University in the University of Toronto in 2004; he held the position until October 2010.

In 2010 Blake Goldring donated $1,000,000 to Victoria University at the University of Toronto to establish a specialised first-year liberal arts program in Jewison's name. The program began in September 2011 welcoming fewer than 30 select students into Norman Jewison Stream for Imagination and the Arts. Goldring is a 1981 graduate of the school.

Also in 2010, Jewison married Lynne St. David, whom he had begun dating in 2008. Her married name is Lynne St. David-Jewison. Jewison died at his home in Los Angeles on January 20, 2024, at the age of 97.

(Actor Role) 

• Ted Neeley   Jesus Christ
• Carl Anderson   Judas Iscariot
• Yvonne Elliman   Mary Magdalene
• Barry Dennen   Pontius Pilate
• Bob Bingham   Caiaphas
• Larry Marshall   Simon Zealotes
• Josh Mostel   King Herod
• Kurt Yaghjian   Annas
• Philip Toubus   Peter

Jesus Christ Superstar was the first film credit for all actors except Dennen and Josh Mostel. The cast consisted mostly of actors from the Broadway show, with Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson starring as Jesus and Judas respectively. Neeley had played a reporter and a leper in the Broadway version, and understudied the role of Jesus. Anderson also understudied Judas, but took over the role on Broadway and Los Angeles when Ben Vereen fell ill.

Along with Dennen, Yvonne Elliman (Mary Magdalene), and Bob Bingham (Caiaphas) reprised their Broadway roles in the film. (Elliman, like Dennen, had also appeared on the original concept album.)

According to casting notes Jewison wrote on stationery paper at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he considered Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Barry Gibb, Robert Plant, and Ian Gillan for the titular character. 

Gillan, who played Jesus on the concept album, turned down Jewison's offer because he thought he would please fans more by touring with Deep Purple. The producers also considered Micky Dolenz (from The Monkees) and David Cassidy to play Jesus. 

Then, in 1971, Jewison drove from Palm Springs, California to Los Angeles to view Neeley on stage in a musical adaptation of The Who's Tommy (1969), after an invitation from Neeley's agent. Neeley did not appear the night Jewison arrived, as he was taking a break. However, Neeley, wearing Levi's clothing and a fake mustache and beard, encountered Jewison at a motel the next morning to apologize about his absence from the performance, his rationale being illness. Following a 20-minute meeting, and without seeing Neeley perform the part, Jewison said to his production partner Pat Palmer that "I had a hunch that I had found our Jesus".

In responding to a question from the Vatican Press about why Jewison cast a black actor for Judas, the director responded that Anderson "tested along with many others in London, and as always happens, the film really told us what to do. The test was so successful that there really wasn't any doubt in my mind at all that he was the most talented actor to play the role".