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IMDbPro

John Calley(1930-2011)

  • Producer
  • Actor
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
John Calley at an event for Coup de foudre à Manhattan (2002)
Calley was born the son of a car salesman in Jersey City, New Jersey, and attended Columbia University before briefly serving in the Army. At NBC, he started in the mail room and moved up through the ranks from from 1951-57 in a still-young TV industry, from sale and production before settling in as director of nighttime programming. Later at Henry Jaffe Enterprises, he developed and produced musical programming; soon after he served the Ted Bates Advertising Agency as its radio and TV programming VP, until 1960.

Eventually it was at Filmways, where Calley hit his stride and either developed or produced appealing fare from Catch-22 (1970) to The Les Jeux de l'amour et de la guerre (1964), Le Kid de Cincinnati (1965) and Le cher disparu (1965). When Warner Bros., merged with Filmways later in the '60s, Calley was promoted to executive VP of worldwide production, later rising to president and then vice chairman, under Frank Wells.

In addition to Les Hommes du président (1976), Calley's Warner Bros. years featured hits like Superman (1978), Les Chariots de feu (1981) and Woodstock (1970). However, after falling victim to an unhappy marriage and burnout from his involvement in the making of over 120 films at Warner's, he all but dropped out of Hollywood for the next 10 years, moving away from the studio scene to pursue the life of a "virtual hermit" first at his huge home on Fishers's Island, New York, and then in rural Connecticut.

Eventually in the 1990s, Calley returned as one of the producers of Merchant-Ivory's Les vestiges du jour (1993), which led to the only Oscar nomination in his half-century career.

Also in 1993, Calley was persuaded to return to the executive suite in an effort to resurrect faded United Artists. His credit for doing so was linked to his shepherding the latest James Bond feature, big-budget GoldenEye (1995), as well as his decision to support the low-budget Leaving Las Vegas (1995).

Ultimately, it was when he once again teamed with director Mike Nichols (of 'Catch-22' fame) that he scored his greatest triumph at UA, with The Birdcage (1996), a comedy that grossed well over $100 million.

However, that same year, Calley moved on from MGM/UA to Sony Pictures Entertainment as its president and COO, where he managed to achieve another turnaround. Two years later, having met his latest challenge, he returned to producing, once again hitting the mark with Nichols's Closer, entre adultes consentants (2004), and then with the Da Vinci Code (2006) original and its' sequel Anges & Démons (2009).

In 2009, Calley received recognition from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences when he won the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award and was celebrated as 'one of the most trusted and admired figures in Hollywood.

When film executive and producer John Calley died on September 13, 2011, Variety described him as a "studio lion." In his 50-year career, he headed three different major movie studios and helped fashion dozens of popular as well as influential pictures, including L'Exorciste (1973), 'Catch-22,' 'All the President's Men' and 'The Da Vinci Code.' Calley was renowned as a brilliant, almost scholarly executive, who was candid, humorous and low-key, yet his productions ran the gamut of budgets and genres.
BornJuly 8, 1930
DiedSeptember 13, 2011(81)
BornJuly 8, 1930
DiedSeptember 13, 2011(81)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Nominated for 1 Oscar
    • 2 wins & 4 nominations total

Photos8

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Known for

Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in Les vestiges du jour (1993)
Les vestiges du jour
7.8
  • Producer
  • 1993
Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, and Clive Owen in Closer, entre adultes consentants (2004)
Closer, entre adultes consentants
7.1
  • Producer
  • 2004
Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in Da Vinci Code (2006)
Da Vinci Code
6.6
  • Producer
  • 2006
Catch-22 (1970)
Catch-22
7.1
  • Producer
  • 1970

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Producer



  • Tom Hanks in Anges & Démons (2009)
    Anges & Démons
    6.7
    • producer
    • 2009
  • Amy Brenneman and Hugh Dancy in Lettre ouverte à Jane Austen (2007)
    Lettre ouverte à Jane Austen
    6.7
    • producer
    • 2007
  • The Company (2007)
    The Company
    7.7
    TV Mini Series
    • executive producer
    • 2007
  • Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in Da Vinci Code (2006)
    Da Vinci Code
    6.6
    • producer
    • 2006
  • Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, and Clive Owen in Closer, entre adultes consentants (2004)
    Closer, entre adultes consentants
    7.1
    • producer
    • 2004
  • Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in Les vestiges du jour (1993)
    Les vestiges du jour
    7.8
    • producer
    • 1993
  • Bons baisers d'Hollywood (1990)
    Bons baisers d'Hollywood
    6.7
    • producer
    • 1990
  • Les maîtres de l'ombre (1989)
    Les maîtres de l'ombre
    6.5
    • executive producer
    • 1989
  • Catch-22 (1970)
    Catch-22
    7.1
    • producer
    • 1970
  • Burt Lancaster in Un château en enfer (1969)
    Un château en enfer
    6.1
    • producer
    • 1969
  • Destination: Zebra, station polaire (1968)
    Destination: Zebra, station polaire
    6.6
    • producer (uncredited)
    • 1968
  • Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale, and Sharon Tate in Comment réussir en amour sans se fatiguer (1967)
    Comment réussir en amour sans se fatiguer
    5.8
    • producer
    • 1967
  • Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Sharon Tate, and David Hemmings in Le mystère des 13 (1966)
    Le mystère des 13
    6.1
    • producer
    • 1966
  • Le Kid de Cincinnati (1965)
    Le Kid de Cincinnati
    7.2
    • associate producer
    • 1965
  • Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer, and Robert Morse in Le cher disparu (1965)
    Le cher disparu
    6.9
    • producer
    • 1965

Actor



  • Nastassja Kinski, Robert Downey Jr., Wesley Snipes, Kyle MacLachlan, and Ming-Na Wen in Pour une nuit... (1997)
    Pour une nuit...
    5.9
    • Charlie's Father
    • 1997

Personal details

Edit
  • Born
    • July 8, 1930
    • Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
  • Died
    • September 13, 2011
    • Los Angeles, California, USA(cancer)
  • Spouses
      Meg TillyOctober 13, 1995 - February 2, 2002 (divorced)
  • Children
    • Sabrina Calley
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Articles

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Received the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award from the Oscars in 2009.
  • Quotes
    One problem with Hollywood is that most of the people in studio jobs nowadays are afraid of the process of making movies. The actual fact of filmmaking is an alien thing to them...You try to get somebody to do a movie for you, but then, once that person commits to the project, you do everything you possibly can to neutralize him so that he can't do what you've hired him to do in the first place. (1994)

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