Scott RudinBirth Place: New York, New York, USA Date of Birth: July 14, 1958 Heritage: American Famous for: Producer of 'The Truman Show' (1998) Contact Scott Rudin | 
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No Country for Old Men Background: “If you're going to spend two or three years of your life working on something, you've got to be making the kind of movie that discusses and influences the culture and is engaged in the world you're living in.” Scott Rudin Oscar winning American producer Scott Rudin began his career as an assistant to theater producer Kermit Bloomgarten before becoming a casting agent and eventually running his own company. The New York Native, however, did not begin his producing career until 1980 when he joined Edgar J. Scherick Associates in Los Angeles. He was named President of 20th Century Fox in 1986, but resigned a year later to embark on a production deal with Paramount Pictures. Despite signing a deal with Tristar Picture in the early 1990s, he continued working with Paramount until 2004. He is currently signed to Walt Disney Company. Rudin is best known for producing the Coen Brothers' “No Country for Old Men” (2007), from which he won an Academy Award, Stephen Daldry's “The Hours” (2002) and the Jim Carrey comedy “The Truman Show” (1998). Other films he has produced include “The Addams Family” (1991), “Sister Act” (1992), “Searching for Bobby Fischer” (1993), “The First Wives Club” (1996), “In & Out” (1997), “Sleepy Hollow” (1999), “Wonder Boys” (2000), “Iris” (2001), “Zoolander” (2001), “The Village” (2004), “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), “Notes on a Scandal” (2006), “There Will Be Blood” (2007), “Revolutionary Road” (2008), “Julie & Julia” (2009) and “The Social Network” (2010). Rudin's theater production credits include “Passion” (1994), “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1996), “Closer” (1999) and “The Wild Party” (2000).
Childhood and Family: Scott Rudin was born on July 14, 1958, in New York City, New York. He grew up in the town of Baldwin on Long Island. Currently, Scott resides in New York City with his longtime companion John Barlow, a Broadway theater publicist and founding partner of Barlow/Hartman Public Relations.
Career: As a teenager, Scott Rudin kicked off his career by working as an assistant to the legendary theater producer Kermit Bloomgarten. He then worked for producers Emanuel Azenberg and Robert Whitehead and instead of attending college, took a job as a casting agent. He eventually established his own company and cast Broadway productions like “Pippin” (1972) for Stuart Ostrow and Bob Fosse, and “Annie” (1977) for producer Mike Nichols. In 1978, Rudin received his first film credit as a casting director with “King of the Gypsies” (1978), a drama written and directed by Frank Pierson that starred Sterling Hayden, Shelley Winters and Susan Sarandon. He had the same duty for Jonathan Demme's “Last Embrace” and Philip Kaufman's “The Wanderers” (both 1979) and the television films “Sanctuary of Fear” (1978) and “The Lathe of Heaven” (1979). In 1980, Rudin relocated to Los Angeles to begin his producing career with Edgar J. Scherick Associates. He made his television movie producing debut with “Revenge of the Stepford Wives,” that same year and produced his first film, “I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can,” a drama starring Jill Clayburgh, in 1982. He also executive produced the NBC miniseries “Little Gloria... Happy at Last” (1982) and shared a 1983 Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Drama Special for his work on the drama. He then picked up an Emmy Award as an executive producer for “He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin'” (1983), a documentary about ex-American ballet star Jacques D'Amboise. The documentary also won an Oscar for Best Documentary. After his stint with Edgar J. Sherick Associates, Rudin formed his own production company called Scott Rudin Productions, in 1983. He subsequently produced Gillian Armstrong's “Mrs. Soffel” (1984), a drama from which Diane Keaton picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for her portrayal of Kate Soffel, and the James Foley directed drama “Reckless” (also 1984). It was not long before he caught the attention of 20th Century-Fox and was hired as an executive producer in 1984. Within two years, Rudin was promoted to President of Production, but he quit the position the next year to reportedly work on more independent features. After leaving Fox in 1987, Rudin entered into a production deal with Paramount Pictures. Over the next five years, he produced various movies, including John Schlesinger's “Pacific Heights” (1990, starred Melanie Griffith, Michael Keaton and Matthew Modine), Mike Nichols' “Regarding Henry” (1991, starred Harrison Ford and Annette Bening), the directorial debut of Jodie Foster, “Little Man Tate” (1991, starred Foster, Diane Wiest and Adam Hann-Byrd), and Barry Sonnenfeld's “The Addams Family” (1991, starred Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci). He next experienced a surprise comedy hit with Emile Ardolino's “Sister Act” (1992, starred Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith), which spawned a sequel in 1993 called “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” (directed by Bill Duke). His other 1992 projects, Roger Donaldson's “White Sands” (starred Willem Dafoe and Mickey Rourke) and Bruce Robinson's “Jennifer Eight” (starred Andy Garcia, Lance Henriksen and Uma Thurman), were box office failures. He had another commercial flop with James Lapine's “Life with Mikey,” (1993) which starred Michael J. Fox. After his contract with Paramount expired in 1992, Rudin signed a three year deal with Tri-star Picture. Before his scheduled move to Tristar in 1994, Paramount released some more films he had worked on at the studio, including the blockbuster thriller “The Firm” (1993, helmed by Sydney Pollack and starred Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook and David Strathairn) and Steven Zaillian's critically acclaimed “Searching for Bobby Fischer” (1993, starred Max Pomeranc, Joe Mantegna, Joan Allen, Ben Kingsley and Laurence Fishburne). Also in 1993, Rudin initiated a deal with Jujamcyn Theaters to develop and produce plays for the theater chain. His first effort, “Face Value” (1993), a co-production with Stuart Ostrow and Jujamcyn Theater, was unsuccessful. He quickly rebounded with his production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's “Passion” (1994), which won Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book of Musical (Lapine), Best Original Score (Sondheim) and Best Actress in Musical (Donna Murphy). Rudin went on to produce the Broadway comeback of Kathleen Turner, “Indiscretions” (1995), Ralph Fiennes' New York theater debut “Hamlet” (1995), the hit Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim and Larry Gelbart musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1996, starred Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella and Mark Linn-Baker), “The Goat or Who Is Sylvia,” “Seven Guitars,” “The Ride Down Mt. Morgan,” “Copenhagen,” “Deuce,” “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “The History Boys,” “Closer” and “Doubt,” among other stage productions. He also produced the acclaimed Broadway play “Skylight” (1996). When his time to relocate to Tristar arrived, Rudin decided to postpone the move and stay with Paramount. He subsequently produced Robert Benson's drama “Nobody's Fool” (1994, starred Paul Newman), from which he received a Wise Owl Award - Honorable Mention Television and Theatrical Film Fiction from the 1995 Retirement Research Foundation, Fred Schepisi's “I.Q.” (1994, starred Tim Robins and Meg Ryan), Amy Heckerling's hit comedy “Clueless” (1995, starred Alicia Silverstone) and Sydney Pollack's remake of “Sabrina” (1995, starred Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond and Greg Kinnear). He scored another box office hit with “The First Wives Club” (1996), a comedy starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton. An adaptation of the best selling novel of the same name by Olivia Goldsmith, the film grossed over $181 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million. Rudin also produced the Mel Gibson vehicle “Ransom” (1996, directed by Ron Howard), Albert Brooks' “Mother” (1996, starred Brooks and Debbie Reynolds), “Marvin's Room” (1996, starred Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio and Diane Keaton), for which he won a Christopher Award, and the successful comedy “In & Out” (1997, directed by Frank Oz and starred Kevin Kline). Other projects included “Twilight” (1998, starred Paul Newman) and “A Civil Action” (1998, starred John Travolta. Still in 1998, Rudin gained recognition as the producer of “The Truman Show,” a film starring Jim Carrey. The movie, directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol, was a success and collected numerous nominations at the 71st Academy Awards, 56th Golden Globe Awards, 52nd British Academy Film Awards and The Saturn Awards. For his effort, Rudin nabbed a BAFTA Film nomination for Best Film and an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Foreign Film Award. Rudin closed out the decade overseeing such films as “Angela's Ashes,” “Sleepy Hollow” “Bringing Out the Dead” (directed by Martin Scorsese) and “South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut,” an animated satirical comedy helmed by Trey Parker. “Sleepy Hollow,” a horror film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, was a box office hit and received critical acclaim. The same year, he also co-produced the Tony nominated production of “The Chairs” and the David Hare plays “The Blue Room,” which marked the Broadway debut of Nicole Kidman, and “The Judas Kiss,” which was about Oscar Wilde (played by Liam Neeson). On stage, Rudin produced “Closer” and “Amy's View” (both 1999). On the small screen, Rudin served as a producer on the television version of “Clueless,” which ran on ABC from 1996 to 1997 and UPN from 1997 to 1999. In new millennium, Rudin produced John Singleton's loose remake of “Shaft” (2000, starred Samuel L. Jackson), “Wonder Boys” (2000, starred Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire), the hit comedy “Zoolander” (2001, starred and directed by Ben Stiller), and “Rules of Engagement” (2000, starred Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L Jackson). He also produced Wes Anderson's “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001, starred Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston), Richard Eyre's “Iris” (2001, starred Judi Dench), from which he received the Alexander Korda Award nomination for Best British Film at the 2002 BAFTA Awards, Jake Kasdan's “Orange County” (2002) and Roger Mitchell's thriller “Changing Lanes” (2002, starred Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson). The producer enjoyed a major success with his work on the successful drama “The Hours” (2002), which was helmed by Stephen Daldry and scripted by David Hare and based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham. The film, starring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, brought Rudin a 2003 Oscar nomination for Best Picture, BAFTA nominations for the Alexander Korda Award and Best Film, and an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Foreign Film Award. Rudin went on to produce Richard Linklater's “The School of Rock” (2003, starred Jack Black), Jonathan Demme's “The Manchurian Candidate” (2004) and Frank Oz's “The Stepford Wives” (2004, starred Kidman) for Paramount before leaving the studio in 2004 after the resignation of Paramount chairwoman Sherry Lansing. After leaving Paramount, Rudin signed a first look deal with the Walt Disney Company, which allowed him to make movies under their labels Touchstone Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films. Later, following the departure of Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein, he became the head of Miramax Films. One of his early films for Disney, “The Village” (2004), a psychological thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan, received mixed reviews from critics and was not as financially successful as some of Shamalan's earlier films. Rudin next produced “I Heart Huckabees” (2004), “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” (2004), “Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events” (2004), “The Queen” (2006), “Notes on a Scandal” (2006), “Failure to Launch” (2006, starred Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker), “Freedomland” (2006) and “ Wild Tigers I Have Known” (2006). He then gained a huge breakthrough with “No Country for Old Men” (2007), a thriller he co-produced with director/writers Joel and Ethan Coen. Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same title, the film received top praise from critics and grossed over $171 million worldwide. It won Oscars for Best Achievement in Directing, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Javier Bardem), Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, and Best Motion Picture of the Year, Rudin's first Academy Award. Adding to his Oscar, Rudin also received PGA's Motion Picture Producer of the Year for Theatrical Motion Pictures, and a BAFTA nomination for Best Film. Next up for Rudin, he produced or executive produced “The Darjeeling Limited” (2007), Paul Thomas Anderson's critically acclaimed drama “There Will Be Blood” (2007, starred Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar for his performance, and Paul Dano), “Margot at the Wedding” (2007) and “Nothing Is Private” (2007). He also worked with “The Other Boleyn Girl” (2008), “Stop-Loss” (2008), “I Doubt” (2008), “Revolutionary Road” (2008), “Julie & Julia” (2009), “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009) and “It's Complicated” (2009). More produced pictures included “Greenberg” (2010), “The Way Back” (2010) and David Fincher's “The Social Network” (2010), a story about the founders of the social networking website Facebook. Rudin's upcoming film projects include “Margaret” (2011), “Moneyball” (2011), “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2011), “The Smoker” (2011), “Liars (A-E)” (2011), “Blood Meridian” (2011), “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” (2012) and “Cleopatra” (2013), to name a few.
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