Lorne MichaelsBirth Place: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Date of Birth: November 17, 1944 Heritage: Canadian Famous for: Producer of Saturday Night Live Contact Lorne Michaels | 
|
Lorne Michaels Videos:
 |
|
Creator of SNL Background: Canadian import Lorne Michaels is best known as the creator and producer of “Saturday Night Live” (1975-present), the longest-running, highest-rated late night program in the history of television. The show has also spawned the careers of numerous comedians, including John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Bill Murray and Adam Sandler. For his endeavors, Lorne has picked up a total of eight Emmy Awards (five for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series and three for Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series) and two Writers Guild of America Awards. First enjoying success as half of a popular Canadian comedy duo with fellow writer/comedian Hart Pomerantz, Michaels went on to write comedy for American TV, including the Lily Tomlin special “Lily” (1973), which won Michaels his first Emmy Award. He also received Emmy Awards for his writing on “The Paul Simon Special” (1978) and as the executive producer of NBC's “30 Rock” (2006-2008), a comedy series starring and created by former “SNL” member Tina Fey. Other TV series he created, produced or executive produced include “The New Show” (1984), the successful “The Kids in the Hall” (1988-1995, received three Gemini Awards), “Late Night With Conan O'Brien” (1993-2008), “The Tracy Morgan Show” (2003) and “Sons and Daughters” (2006-2007). The ex-automotive salesman has also branched out into producing films and produced “The Three Amigos” (1986), “Wayne's World” (1992), “Tommy Boy” (1995) and the more recent and upcoming films “The Ladies Man” (2000), “Enigma” (2001), “Mean Girls” (2004), “Hot Rod” (2007), “Baby Mama” (2008) and “Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill” (2009). For his contribution to the television industry, Michaels has received several honors. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999 and three years later earned a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The same year, he was also made a member of the Order of Canada. Michaels became an inductee to the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2003. In addition, he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from the PGA and an Honorary Doctorate from Ryerson University for his TV work. As for his personal life, Michaels has been married three times. He has three children with present wife Alice Barry, who he married in 1991.
Childhood and Family: Lorne Michael Lipowitz was born on November 17, 1944, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His father died when he was 14 year years old, leaving the young Lorne and his younger siblings, Barbara and Mark (who later died of a brain tumor), under the care of their mother, Florence Lipowitz. Raised in Forest Hill, a wealthy suburb of Toronto, Lorne attended Forest Hill High School in Toronto and then furthered his studies at the University of Toronto, from which he earned a degree in English. After completing his education, he moved to England to start a career as an automobile salesman. He returned to Canada in 1966, but moved again two years later, this time to Los Angeles. Lorne was married to Rosie Shuster, the daughter of Frank Shuster of the fame Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuste, in 1973, but they later divorced in 1980. Lorne met Rosie in high school when he was 16 and she was 14. Four years after the separation, he tried to build a new family by marrying model Susan Forristal in 1984. However, the bond only lasted for three years and they divorced in 1987. Lorne married present wife Alice Barry, his ex-assistant, in 1991. The couple has three children.
Career: As a teenager, Lorne Michaels had his early exposure to producing when he and his friend, future “SNL” collaborator Howard Shore, were hired to organize productions of “Bye Bye Birdie” and “The Fantastiks” at a summer camp in Ontario. While in college, he directed and co-wrote a sketch comedy/musical variety show called “Follies,” which was an early model of “Saturday Night Live.” However, before it got a real start, Michaels had to put his career on the back burner and relocate to the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s to become an automotive salesman. He did not move back to Canada until 1966 and along with comedy/writer partner Hart Pomerantz, he established a popular stand-up comedy act in Toronto. In 1967, the two worked as performers and writers for “Five Nights a Week at This Time,” a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBS) radio comedy show, but left after continual conflicts with management. They went on to become junior writers for the NBC short-lived “The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show” (1968) and the “Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In” (also NBC, 1968-1969) before starring on their own variety series, “The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour,” which ran on CBS from 1970 to 1971. In addition to performing, Michaels also shared writing credits with Pomerantz, the soon-to-be-wife Rosie Shuster, and others, and produced the show. A year after he ended his partnership with Pomerantz, Michaels was hired to produce Lily Tomlin’s TV special, “Lily” (CBS, 1973), which he also co-wrote with the star Tomlin, Jane Wagner and others. The program successfully won Michaels an Emmy in 1974 for Best Writing in Comedy-Variety, Variety or Music, and he reprised his duties for the followed-ups “Lily” (1974) and “The Lily Tomlin Special” (ABC, 1975). 1973 also found Michaels helping to develop a comedy/music series for ABC called “Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour,” which was hosted by Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber. In 1975, Michaels was approached by NBC employee Dick Ebersol and network president Herb Schlosser to create a youth-oriented late-night comedy/variety series as a replacement of the Saturday night reruns of “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.” He got together some nameless writers and comedians and “NBC's Saturday Night,” which later morphed into “Saturday Night Live,” debuted on television on October 11, 1975. A show in which the players perform live in front of a studio audience, “SNL” immediately became a hit and throughout the history of the show, it has been nominated for more than eighty Emmy nominations and has won twenty-two, eight of which went to Michaels who served as a writer, producer and later executive producer of the show in addition to occasionally appearing on the show as a performer. The popular series has also had an important role in establishing the careers of comedians like Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Dennis Miller, Chris Rock, David Spade, Adam Sandler, Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan and Tina Fey. Thanks to the success of “SNL,” Michaels could finally set up his own production company, Broadway Video. Some of his early work with the company included “The Beach Boys: It’s Okay” (1976), “The Paul Simon Special” (1977), from which he picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Special, and the cult hit “The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash” (1978), a mockumentary of the popular music group The Beatles which was helmed and penned by Eric Idle and starred many of the “SNL” players. In 1979, Michaels produced, directed and co-wrote Gilda Radner's one-woman show called “Gilda Radner Live from New York,” which was released as a concert movie in 1981 called “Gilda Live” with Mike Nichols directing and Michaels taking on the duties of producer/writer. A dispute with the NBC network led Michaels to leave “SNL” in 1980 and he spent the next five years away from the show. He worked on a number of other projects, including executive producing the concert film “Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park” (1982), producing the Tom Schiller-helmed romantic movie “Nothing Lasts Forever” (made in 1982, released in 1984) and creating the short-lived sketch show “The New Show” (NBC, 1984). At the request of Brandon Tartikoff, who at the time was a chief of programming of NBC, Michaels returned to “SNL” in 1985. The following year, Michaels produced and co-wrote with Steve Martin and Randy Newman the adventure/comedy film “The Three Amigos,” which was directed by John Landis and went on to become a blockbuster hit. While continuing to bring “SNL” back on track, the talented producer kept busy launching a sketch comedy series called “The Kids in the Hall” in 1988. Initially airing in Canada, the successful series was later imported to America via CBS/HBO where it soon gathered an audience. Michaels was handed two consecutive Geminis for Best Comedy Series (1993, 1994). Also in 1988, Michaels executive produced the syndicated late-night music series “Sunday Night.” After executive producing “Rolling Stones: Terrifying” (1990), a three-hour live Rolling Stones concert in New Jersey, Michaels enjoyed a second box office hit as the producer of “Wayne's World,” a 1992 comedy film adapted from a well-liked “SNL” skit. Other movies he produced during the 1990s included “Coneheads” (1993), also based on a “SNL” skit, the Chris Farley/David Spade vehicle “Tommy Boy” (1995), director Harold Ramis' “Stuart Saves His Family” (1995), “Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy” (1996), a big screen version of the hit TV series “Black Sheep” (1996), “A Night at the Roxbury” (1998) and the Bruce McCulloch directed “Superstar” (1999). Meanwhile, on the small screen, he executive produced and created the NBC “Late Night With Conan O'Brien” (1993), executive produced the short-lived sketch comedy “The Vacant Lot” (1994) and in 1997, he began collaborating with NBC Entertainment to create SNL Studios. Entering the new millennium, Michaels focused his energy more on his producing career. Outside of “SNL,” he could be seen working on the movies “The Ladies Man” (2000), a comedy starring Tim Meadow and directed by Reginald Hudlin, “Enigma” (2001), a romance/thriller where Kate Winslet was cast as Hester Wallace and Dougray Scott as Thomas Jericho, the “SNL “Tina Fey-written comedy “Mean Girls” (2004), which starred Lindsay Lohan, and Akiva Schaffer's comedy “Hot Rod” (2007). He served as executive producer on such short-lived sketch comedy shows as “The Colin Quinn Show” (2002), “The Tracy Morgan Show” (2003), “Thick and Thin” (2006) and “Sons and Daughters” (2006-2007). For his work in the comedy series “30 Rock” (NBC, 2006-present), created by and starring Tina Fey, Michaels jointly nabbed a 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and a 2008 PGA for Television Producer of the Year. The 64-year-old Michaels has completed producing the comedy film “Baby Mama” (2008), penned and helmed by Michael McCullers and starring Tina Fey. It has been announced that he will produce the comedies “Key Party” (2008), written by and starring Seth Meyers, “Groupies” (2008), for writer Erica Rivinoja, and “Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill” (2009), starring Sacha Baron Cohen.
|
|
|
