About
| Birth Notes: | 3 August 1950, Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Family: | * Deborah Nadoolman (27 July 1980 - present); 2 children |
| Biography: | John Landis began his career in the mail room of 20th Century-Fox. A high-school dropout, 18-year-old Landis made his way to Yugoslavia to work as a production assistant on Kelly's Heroes (1970). Remaining in Europe, Landis found work as an actor, extra and stuntman in many of the Spanish/Italian "spaghetti" westerns. Returning to the US, he made his feature debut as a writer-director at age 21 with Schlock (1973), an affectionate tribute to monster movies. Clad in a Rick Baker -designed gorilla suit, Landis starred as "Schlockthropus", the missing link. After working as a writer, actor and production assistant, Landis made his second film, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), in collaboration with the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams. Landis rose to international recognition as director of the wildly successful Animal House (1978). With blockbusters such as The Blues Brothers (1980), Trading Places (1983), Spies Like Us (1985), ¡Three Amigos! (1986) and Coming to America (1988), Landis has directed some of the most popular film comedies of all time. Other feature credits include Into the Night (1985), Innocent Blood (1992) and the comedy/horror genre classic An American Werewolf in London (1981), which he also wrote. In 1986 Landis and four others, were acquitted of responsibility for the tragic accident that occurred in Landis' segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) in which actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed. The film also included segments directed by Joe Dante , George Miller and Steven Spielberg. In 1983 Landis wrote and directed the groundbreaking music video of Michael Jackson 's Thriller (1983) (TV), created originally to play as a theatrical short. "Thriller" forever changed MTV and the concept of music videos, garnering multiple accolades including the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Overall Video, Viewer's Choice, and the Video Vanguard Award - The Greatest Video in the History of the World. In 1991 "Thriller" was inducted into the MVPA's Hall of Fame. In 1991, Landis collaborated again with Jackson (I) on Black or White (1991) (V), which premiered simultaneously in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million. Although it was not the first motion picture or music video to do so, "Black or White" popularized the use of "digital morphing", where one object appears to seamlessly metamorphoses into another; the project raised the standard for state-of-the-art special effects in music videos. Landis has also been active in television as the executive producer (and often director) of the Ace- and Emmy Award-winning HBO series "Dream On" (1990). Other TV shows produced by his company, St. Clare Entertainment (St. Clare is the patron saint of television), include "Weird Science" (1994), "Sliders" (1995), "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show" (1997), "Campus Cops" (1995) and The Lost World (1998). In 2004 the Independent Film Channel broadcast his feature-length documentary about a used-car salesman, Slasher (2004) (TV). Deer Woman, an original one-hour episode written by Landis and his son Max Landis, inaugurated the "Masters of Horror" (2005) series in the fall of 2005 on Showtime. "Masters of Horror" also features one-hour episodes by John Carpenter , Roger Corman, Tobe Hooper, Don Coscarelli, Mick Garris, Dario Argento and Larry Cohen . A sought-after commercial director, Landis has worked for a variety of companies including Direct TV, Taco Bell, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg's and Disney. He was made a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1985, awarded the Federico Fellini Prize by Rimini Cinema Festival in Italy and was named a George Eastman Scholar by The Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Both the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Torino Film Festival have held career retrospectives of his films. In 2004 Landis received the Time Machine Career Achievement Award at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. Sent as a filmmaker/scholar by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Landis has lectured at many film schools and universities including Yale, Harvard, NYU, UCLA, UCSB, USC, Texas A&M, The North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Miami and Indiana University. He has also acted as a teacher and advisor to aspiring filmmakers at the Sundance Institute in Utah. Additionally, he edited Best American Movie Writing 2001 (Thunder's Mouth Press, NY, 2001). Born in Chicago, Illinois, Landis moved to Los Angeles soon after his birth. He is married to Deborah Nadoolman, an Oscar-nominated costume designer, and President of the Costume Designers Guild, with whom he has two children. |
Filmography
| 1941 (1979) as Mizerany |
| American Grindhouse (2010) as Himself |
| An American Werewolf in London (1981) as Man Being Smashed Into Window |
| Animal House (1978) as Cafeteria Dishwasher |
| Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999) as Judge |
| Into the Night (1985) as SAVAK |
| Kelly's Heroes (1970) as Sister Rosa Stigmata |
| Look (2007) as Himself |
| Parasomnia (2008) as Department Store Manager |
| Sleepwalkers (1992) as Lab Technician |
| Spider-Man 2 (2004) as Doctor |
| The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) as TV technician fighting with gorilla (segment "A.M. Today") |
| The Sci-Fi Boys (2006) as Himself |
| Trading Places (1983) as Man with briefcase |
| Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) |
| An American Werewolf in London (1981) |
| Animal House (1978) |
| Coming to America (1988) |
| Innocent Blood (1992) |
| Into the Night (1985) |
| Oscar (1991) |
| Susan's Plan (1998) |
| The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) |
| The Stupids (1996) |
| Trading Places (1983) |
| Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) |
| Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) as Jake's Friend |
| Beware the Moon: Remembering 'An American Werewolf in London' (2009) as Himself |
| Body Chemistry II: Voice of a Stranger (1992) as Dr. Edwards |
| Chicago Filmmakers on the Chicago River (1998) as Himself |
| Darkman (1990) as Physician |
| Dead On: The Life and Cinema of George A. Romero (2008) as Himself |
| Death Race 2000 (1975) as Mechanic |
| Diamonds (1999) as Gambler |
| Eating Raoul (1982) as Man who bumps into Mary at the bank |
| Edgar G. Ulmer - The Man Off-screen (2004) as Himself |
| Famous Monster: Forrest J Ackerman (2007) as Himself |
| Hollywood Rated 'R' (1997) as Narrator |
| Il silenzio dei prosciutti (1994) as FBI Agent |
| Into the Pit: The Shocking Story of Deadpit.com (2009) as Himself |
| Laws of Deception (1997) as Judge Trevino |
| Le couperet (2005) as Père copain Maxime |
| Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) as Himself |
| Mad City (1997) as Doctor |
| Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007) as Himself/Sister Rosa Stigmata |
| Schlock (1973) as Schlock |
| Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007) as Himself |
| Spontaneous Combustion (1990) as Radio Technician |
| Surviving Eden (2004) as Doctor Levine |
| Tattoos: A Scarred History (2009) |
| The American Nightmare (2000) as Himself |
| The Blues Brothers (1980) as Trooper La Fong |
| The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story (2009) as Himself |
| The Making of 'Invasion of the Freedom Snatchers' (2004) as Himself |
| The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry (2010) as Himself |
| The Muppet Movie (1979) as Grover |
| The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) as Leonard Winesop |
| The Scenesters (2009) as Judge Paxton B. Johnson |
| The T.A.M.I. Show (1964) as Himself - Audience member |
| Torrente 3: El protector (2005) as Arabian embassador (Estrella invitada) |
| Trailers from Hell (2008) as Himself |
| Venice/Venice (1992) as John Landis |
| Who Is Henry Jaglom? (1997) as Himself |
| Bat Boy (2007) |
| Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) |
| Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) |
| Burke and Hare (2010) |
| Epic Proportions (2010) |
| Ghoulishly Yours, William M. Gaines (2010) |
| Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007) |
| Schlock (1973) |
| Show Dogs (2007) |
| Spies Like Us (1985) |
| The Blues Brothers (1980) |
| The Bone Orchard (2010) |
| The Great Sketch Experiment (2006) |
| The Rivals (2011) |
| ¡Three Amigos! (1986) |
Trivia
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* The trademark trivia often mentioned in Landis-directed films, the inclusion in some form of the phrase "See you next Wednesday", is a reference to a line in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), where astronaut Frank Poole watches a video sent to him by his wife and father on the occasion of his birthday. At the end of the video his wife says, "See you next Wednesday!", an obvious reference to their next available time to transmit a message to the distant spacecraft bound for Jupiter, though since Frank is killed within the next day or two by HAL, it is perhaps meant as an ironic trademark since it seems to occur in Landis films when characters are in great danger. It appears during the werewolf rampage as the title on the marquee of a porno theater in An American Werewolf in London (1981). It is spoken in German when Vic Morrow is being shot at on the building in the sequence he directed for Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). In The Blues Brothers (1980) it's on a billboard where the the cops are lying in wait. Then again, it mostly appears as the name on movie posters, so that it probably became merely something to watch for like Alfred Hitchcock 's cameos. It first appeared in his first film Schlock (1973) as the name of a movie and as a movie poster in a theater lobby. It appeared again in his second film. The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), as the title of the "Feel-O-Rama" movie. It surfaces in an apartment in Trading Places (1983) on a movie poster. In Coming to America (1988) it appears in a subway station (the movie claims to star Jamie Lee Curtis, who appeared in "Trading Places"). Another poster is visible in Ophelia's apartment. In Spies Like Us (1985) it appears on the recruitment poster behind the desk of the commander of the army training post. In Into the Night (1985) it appears on two posters in the office where Ed and Diana make the phone call. In Innocent Blood (1992) it is once again advertised on a movie marquee across the street from the Melody Lounge exotic dance bar near where a car crash takes place. It also appears in the Michael Jackson video Thriller (1983) (TV), which was directed by Landis. One of the men chasing the werewolf finds a note and reads this out while the shot shows MJ in the theater eating popcorn. * In his early career he worked as a stunt-man specialising in horse-falls. * He directed the music videos Thriller (1983) (TV) and Black or White (1991) (V), both by Michael Jackson . He has a small cameo as the director in "Black Or White". * Father of Max Landis and Rachel Landis. * After he dropped out of school at age 17 he worked as mailman at the Fox studios. * Went to school with Eliza Roberts. * Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 555-559. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988. * Has never shot a film in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. * Once worked as an attendant in a parking lot. * One of his favorite movies is Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972). He admits that this film inspired the use of the dream within a dream gag in An American Werewolf in London (1981). * Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1989. * Close friend, George Lucas , offered John Landis the role of director on Howard the Duck (1986). After reading the script Landis turned down the opportunity due to the police car crashes in the finale. He felt this was too similar to that of his previous film The Blues Brothers (1980). |
Quotes
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* "The [movie industry] ratings board reflect[s] the morals of the times. So now, with Reagan as president, it's all right to shred children, but bare breasts are pretty disgusting. The morality of the times is deeply sick." American Film Institute speech, January 27, 1982 * When 'Animal House' turned out the way it did, they all rushed to me with barrels of money begging me to make them rich. * I've done every job there is to do on a movie set except makeup. Wait a minute, I've done makeup. I've done every job there is to do on a movie set except hairdressing. * [Commenting on visiting Paramount for the first time in years.] "I felt like Norma Desmond." * In 1991: "I live with the "Twilight Zone" every day of my life." * I've had people come up to me and say Jake and Elwood Blues are these legendary blues artists and I start thinking 'uh-oh'. * On working with Eddie Murphy on Trading Places (1983): His effect was dazzling. There was a "ding!" when he walked on, almost like Marilyn Monroe. * See American Werewolf (In London) is not a comedy. People keep calling it a comedy, it's very funny I hope, but it is a horror film. We meet these guys in a truckload of sheep. This is not subtle. I mean these boys are dead by the end of the movie. That's not really a happy tale. * The Thing (1982) is a terrific movie, probably John Carpenter 's best * [On superstars] I've worked with Paul McCartney, and Michael Jackson , and The Blues Brothers, and David Bowie , and a lot of people that have gone through that experience, and man I think it's difficult to remain sane under those circumstances. When you see what happened to Elvis Presley - I mean, I understand it, but with that level of stardom, and that level of celebrity, it's a miracle if you can make it through it with any sense of sanity after that. * On working with Eddie Murphy in Coming to America (1988): Eddie is an immensely overpowering talent. But if you can imagine a nuclear plant, that energy is productive as long as it's contained. And if Eddie's not contained, he's gonna blow. * I always loved those 1960s films and the things Richard Lester had done with The Beatles, and I conceived An American Werewolf in London (1981) with that spirit in mind. London was horror central, of course, home of Jack the Ripper, Jekyll and Hyde, so I wanted all that Victorian Gothic, but I also wanted to show the real London of 1981. * [On the death of Michael Jackson ] I was lucky enough to know and work with Michael Jackson in his prime. Michael was an extraordinary talent and a truly great international star. He had a troubled and complicated life and despite his gifts, remains a tragic figure. My wife Deborah and I will always have great affection for him. |
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