Lionel Chetwynd

Lionel Chetwynd was born in London, England, and moved to Canada at the age of eight, growing up in Montreal and Toronto. He left school at age 14, later enlisting in the Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment of Canada. Upon completion of military service, he gained conditional admittance to Sir George Williams University (Now Concordia), Montreal, B.A. (Honors Philosophy/ Economics), graduating valedictorian after three years and receiving a scholarship to McGill University Law School, where he received his law degree. During that period, while debating at Oxford University as a Champion debater, he was accepted by the University and completed his graduate studies in Law at Trinity College. Chetwynd then joined the London office of Columbia Pictures, remaining four years. By then, he had begun to expand his horizons with freelance writing and his first produced work, "Maybe That's Your Problem," staged in London's West End. Later that year, he wrote "Bleeding Great Orchids," also staged in London and subsequently Off-Broadway. While in England, Chetwynd wrote the motion picture screenplay adaptation for "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," and received an Academy Award Nomination and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Feature Comedy. To date he has over 50 feature and long-form television credits, including the Vietnam trilogy: "The Hanoi Hilton," "To Heal a Nation," and "Kissinger and Nixon," as well as the recent Emmy-nominated "Ike: Countdown to D-Day," which was the highest rated movie ever to air on A&E Networks. He has also written, produced, and directed over 21 documentaries. He has received both Oscar and Emmy nominations, six Writers Guild of American nominations, including an award, the New York Film Festival Gold Medal, two Christophers, two George Washington Freedom Medals, and six Telly Awards. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Chetwynd wrote "The American 1776," the official United States Bicentennial Film. In 1987, he helped create and he wrote a tribute to the U.S. Constitution as part of the Bi-Centennial celebration staged before members of the U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, and members of the President's Cabinet. In 2001, he was appointed to The President's Committee on the Arts & Humanities. In 2003 Columbia College - Hollywood conferred upon him a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, and in 2004 he received The Caucus of Television Writers, Producers and Directors Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006 he was installed as an Honorary Fellow in the Carl DeSantis Business and Economics Center for the Study and Development of the Motion Picture and Entertainment Industry. In 2008 The Smithsonian Institution/National Portrait Gallery conferred upon him the John Singleton Copley Medal for service to the artistic community and in that same year he received The American Spirit Award, presented by the Caucus for Writers, Producers and Directors in Association with Screen Actors Guild, The Producers Guild, AFTRA and the WGA. In 2011 he was named Writer of the Year by The Caucus. Other civic involvement includes membership on the National Sponsoring Committee of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; Little League of California District 14; Board of Directors UCLA Theater, Film and Television Education Associates; former President, American Cinema Foundation; Member Board of Directors, The Entertainment Industries Council; former Executive Board Member, American Jewish Committee; The Oxford Society of Southern California; Trinity Oxford Society; Captain, 78th Fraser Highlanders, Fort St Helen Garrison. He is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, and was admitted to the Bar of the Province of Quebec. He has taught and lectured extensively at the University of Southern California, Loyola-Marymount University, Columbia College, American Film Institute, Los Angeles, New York University's graduate Film School, the Frederick Douglass Center in Harlem and UCLA. His articles have appeared widely, including The Weekly Standard, The National Review, The National Post, Encounter, L'Exprès, Aujourd'Hui, and publications of The American Enterprise Institute and UCLA Communications Center. Chetwynd is married to motion picture, television and stage actress Gloria Carlin. They reside in Los Angeles, and have two sons. He is fluent in French.