Norman Twain (September 13, 1930 – August 6, 2016) was an American film and theatre producer.

Early work in theatre

Born in Atlantic City in 1930, Twain began his career in theatre, producing and directing over 50 stage productions on and off-Broadway in Los Angeles, Chicago, and London which included: Tennessee Williams's ''Garden District'', Maxwell Anderson's ''The Golden Six'', John Osborne's ''Epitaph for George Dillion'', the Franco Zeffirelli production of ''The Lady of the Camillias'', Jean Anouilh's ''Traveller Without Luggage'', the musicals ''Bajour'' by Walter Marks and Ernest Kinoy, ''Henry Sweet Henry'' by Robert Merrill, ''Lolita, My Love'' by Alan Jay Lerner and John Barry, ''The World of Charles Aznavour'' and ''Gilbert Becaud on Broadway'', as well as John Guare's ''Cop-Out'', the Tony Richardson-Nicol Williamson production of ''Hamlet'', ''The Nicol Williamson Late Show'', ''The World of Lenny Bruce'', ten separate productions of ''Vanities'' by Jack Heifner, Jules Feiffer's ''Hold Me!'', the Milton Katselas production of David Rabe's ''Streamers'' in Los Angeles and at the Long Beach Theater Festival, the Tony Richardson production of ''As You Like It'', ''Cyrano'' starring Stacy Keach and the Gower Champion production of ''Our Town''.

Career in film and television

For Warner Bros, Twain produced '' Lean on Me'', for which he also created the idea and developed the script. It starred Morgan Freeman as Joe Clark, the principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey. ''Lean on Me'', written by Michael Schiffer, was directed by John Avildsen and won the NAACP Image Award for Best Feature Film of the year. He created and developed the idea and served as Executive Producer for the HBO film
Boycott
'. Based on a book by Dr. Stewart Burns and directed by Clark Johnson, with Jeffrey Wright, Carmen Ejogo and Terrence Howard, the film dramatized the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott and was nominated as Best Television Film of the Year by the American Film Institute. ''Boycott'' also won the NAACP Image Award for Best Television Film of the Year and the Peabody Award. Twain served as Executive Producer with Strata Films for ''

Heavens Fall ''Heavens Fall'' is a 2006 American film based on the Scottsboro Boys incident of 1931. Plot In the film, two young white women (portrayed by Leelee Sobieski and Azura Skye) accuse nine black youths of rape in the segregated South. Timothy H ...

'', which was directed by Terry Green and starred Timothy Hutton, David Strathairn, Leelee Sobieski, Anthony Mackie, Azura Skye, and Bill Sage. Twain produced ''

Scar A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a n ...

'', a high definition 3D action horror film written by Zack Ford. In 2008, he produced '' Spinning into Butter'' with Lou Pitt and Sarah Jessica Parker, who starred and also produced. Twain's last film, produced with Howard Kaminsky and Frank Pellegrino of Pellekam Productions, was the animated feature, ''

My Dog Tulip ''My Dog Tulip'' is a 2009 American independent animated feature film based on the 1956 memoir of the same name by J. R. Ackerley, BBC editor, novelist and memoirist. The film tells the story of Ackerley's fifteen-year relationship with his Alsati ...

'', based on the renowned British novel of the same name by J.R. Acklerley. Paul and Sandra Fierlinger animated and directed the feature which stars the voice talents of Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, Isabella Rossellini, and Brian Murray. ''My Dog Tulip'' was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival as well as festivals in Annecy, Pusan, Brussels, Utrecht, Melbourne, Jerusalem, Goteborg, Palm Springs and San Francisco. It was listed as one of th
New York Times Top 10 movies of 2010
by Stephen Holden and was also named one of th

b
Roger Ebert
Ebert, Roger (January 5, 2011)
"My Dog Tulip"
(Chicago Sun Times) Retrieved July 21, 2011

Stage Productions

Bajour Bajaur District ( ps, باجوړ ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Until 2018, it was an agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, then during restructuring that merg ...

– Producer (1965)
Peterpat
– Producer (1965)
The World of Charles Aznavour
– Producer (1965)
Manuela Vargas
– Producer (1966)
Gilbert Becaud on Broadway
– Producer (1966)
The Apparition Theatre of Prague
– Producer (1966) *

Henry, Sweet Henry ''Henry, Sweet Henry'' is a musical with a book by Nunnally Johnson and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill. Based on the 1964 novel ''The World of Henry Orient'' by Johnson's daughter Nora and the subsequent film of the same name, the plot focuse ...

– Producer (1967)
Gilbert Becaud Sings Love
– Producer (1968)
Cop-Out
– Producer (1969)
Hamlet
– Producer (1969)
Charles Aznavour
– Producer (1970)

Filmography

Superman (TV movie)
– Producer (1975) *

The Hotel New Hampshire ''The Hotel New Hampshire'' is a 1981 coming of age novel by American writer John Irving, his fifth published novel. Plot This novel is the story of the Berrys, a quirky New Hampshire family composed of a married couple, Win and Mary, and th ...

– Associate Producer (1984) * Lean on Me – Producer (1989) * Joe Torre: Cureveballs Along the Way (TV movie) – Producer (1997)
Boycott (TV movie)
– Executive Producer (2001) *

– Executive Producer (2006) *

– Producer (2007) * Spinning into Butter – Producer (2008) *

– Producer (2009)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Twain, Norman 1930 births 2016 deaths People from Atlantic City, New Jersey Film producers from New Jersey American theatre managers and producers