The Alamo

Background:

“If everyone in Texas made his or her own Alamo, there would be that many different versions of the story. It's like somebody making a movie about my mother. I'd want the facts to be right, but I'd want it to be shiny in some places and dull in others. I'd be protective. I hope everyone who sees the movie will understand that our hearts are in the right place.” John Lee Hancock

A Texas-born director, writer and producer who began his career as an attorney before pursuing a showbiz career, John Lee Hancock is famous as the director and co-writer of the historical drama “The Alamo” (2004), starring Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric and Dennis Quaid. He jointly picked up the Character and Morality in Entertainment Camie Award for his directorial effort in the festival darling and blockbuster hit baseball film “The Rookie” (2002), also starring Dennis Quaid. A one time freelance writer for the European Press Association and Alpha Press, Hancock enjoyed success as the scriptwriter of the Clint Eastwood films “A Perfect World” (1993) and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (1997). He also penned and executive produced the CBS drama “L.A. Doctors” (1998) and executive produced the CBS pilot “Falcone” (2000). On the kingdom of theater, Hancock has directed and authored the plays “Fullfed Beast,” “Riff For Emily” and “Ten to Midnight.”

Attorney

Childhood and Family:

John Lee Hancock was born in 1957, in Longview, Texas, to John Lee Hancock Sr., who won Baylor University letters in football in 1950 and 1951. John's brother, Kevin, played linebacker for the Bears for four years from 1981 to 1984. His brother, Joe, was also a footballer, playing at Vanderbilt University. John received a B.A in English from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and a law degree from Baylor University Law School.

John is married to Molly Hancock.

The Rookie

Career:

John Lee Hancock spent four years practicing law with Houston-based Sowell & Ogg before embarking into a career in entertainment. He actively participated in theater and once became a member of Fountainhead Theater Company. Later, along with Brandon Lee, Bill Allen and George Davis, he founded the Legal Aliens Theater Company in Los Angeles. He directed and penned the plays “Riff For Emily,” “Ten to Midnight” and “Fullfed Beast.”

These involvements stimulated Hancock's work in film. First serving as a production coordinator, location scout and assistant director for a number of productions, Hancock made his debut as director and screenwriter in “Vaya Con Dios/Hard Time Romance,” a comedy/romance starring Leon Rippy and Tom Everett. His breakthrough moment arrived two years later when he scripted Clint Eastwood's “A Perfect World” (1993), which starred Kevin Costner as Robert 'Butch' Haynes, Laura Dern as Sally Gerber and Eastwood himself as Chief Red Garnett. Hancock reunited with Eastwood for “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (1997), adapted by Hancock from a best-selling novel by John Berendt. The crime/drama starred John Cusack and Kevin Spacey.

Hancock branched out to television in 1998, when he created and wrote pilot for the CBS drama series “ L.A. Doctors,” which ran for 24 episodes from 1998 to 1999. It followed the story of four doctors who ran an upscale practice in Los Angeles. Hancock also served as one of executive producers of the show. 2000 saw Hancock produce his first feature with “My Dog Skip,” an award-winning drama/family helmed by Jay Russell and starring Frankie Muniz, Diane Lane, Luke Wilson and Kevin Bacon, before returning to TV as director and executive producer of the Emmy nominee drama series “Falcone” (CBS, 2000).

Hancock returned to the director's chair in 2002, after over a decade absent, with the biographical movie “The Rookie,” which was written by Mike Rich. Casting Dennis Quaid in the starring role of a Texas baseball coach, Jimmy Morris, the film was a success at the box office and collected favorable reviews in several festivals. For his direction, Hancock jointly won a 2003 Carmie from the Character and Morality in Entertainment.

The director, however, is perhaps best known for helming Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson, Emilio Echevarría and again Quaid in “The Alamo” (2004), a historical drama detailing the 1835-36 Texas revolution before, during, and after the celebrated blockade of the Alamo. The film, which he co-wrote the script with Leslie Bohem and Stephen Gaghan, was nominated for a Harry award in 2005.

Awards:

• Character and Morality in Entertainment: Camie, “The Rookie,” 2003