| Jewison got his BA at Victoria College, University of Toronto, and after moving to London, where he wrote scripts and acted for the BBC, he returned to Toronto and directed TV shows for the CBC (1952-1958), then musicals and variety in New York, before embarking on a film career. In 1986 he established the Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies in Toronto
The father of three children:
Associate producer and location manager Michael Jewison
Camera-operator Kevin Jewison and
Actress Jennifer Jewison
Jewison hitchhiked across the Deep South in U.S. at age 18; he was struck by its aparteid-like racial segregation. He considers "The Hurricane" (1999) the last in a trilogy of racial-injustice movies he's directed, the first two being In the Heat of the Night (1967) and "Soldier's Story", A (1990) . Jewison cast a then-largely-unknown Denzel Washington in "Soldier's Story", A (1990) , then coupled him with Rod Steiger in The Hurricane (1999).
Directed 12 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Alan Arkin, Rod Steiger, Topol, Leonard Frey, Al Pacino, Adolph Caesar, Anne Bancroft, Meg Tilly, Cher, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, and Denzel Washington. Steiger, Dukakis and Cher won Oscars for their performances in one of Jewison's movies. |
Canada