Paul Heller (also known as Paul M. Heller; 25 September 1927 – 28 December 2020) was an American film producer residing in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. His best known movies include ''

Enter the Dragon ''Enter the Dragon'' ( zh, t=龍爭虎鬥) is a 1973 martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse and written by Michael Allin. The film stars Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly. It was Lee's final completed film appearance before his death o ...

'', ''

Withnail and I ''Withnail and I'' is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by Richard E. Gran ...

'', ''

My Left Foot ''My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown'', also known simply as ''My Left Foot'', is a 1989 biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jim Sheridan adapted by Sheridan and Shane Connaughton from the 1954 memoir of the same name by Christ ...

'', ''

The Annihilation of Fish ''The Annihilation of Fish'' is a 1999 American romance film directed by Charles Burnett and starring Lynn Redgrave, James Earl Jones and Margot Kidder. Plot A woman (Lynn Redgrave) who believes a dead composer is in love with her falls in lov ...

'', ''

Skin Game ''Skin Game'' is a 1971 American independent comedy western directed by Paul Bogart and Gordon Douglas, and starring James Garner and Lou Gossett. The supporting cast features Susan Clark, Edward Asner, Andrew Duggan, Parley Baer and Royal Dan ...

'', '' Hot Potato'', '' The Promise'', ''The Barony'', ''

Black Belt Jones ''Black Belt Jones'' is a 1974 American blaxploitation martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse and starring Jim Kelly and Gloria Hendry. The film is a spiritual successor to Clouse's prior film ''Enter the Dragon'', in which Kelly had a supp ...

'', and ''

David and Lisa ''David and Lisa'' is a 1962 American drama film directed by Frank Perry. It is based on the second story in the two-in-one novellas ''Jordi/Lisa and David'' by Theodore Isaac Rubin; the screenplay, written by Frank Perry's wife Eleanor Perry ( ...

''.

Biography

Film production

His debut as a film producer was ''

'', which received two

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

nominations. He was the executive producer of 1990's Oscar winner ''

'', which earned five

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nominations and

Oscars The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. His film ''The Eavesdropper'' won acclaim as Best Film at

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...

and honors at both the New York and

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

s. It was also nominated for Best Foreign Film at the French Awards as was his film ''

Secret Ceremony ''Secret Ceremony'' is a 1968 British drama-thriller film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum. Plot Leonora, a middle-aged prostitute, is despondent over the death of her daughter. Cenci, a lo ...

'', starring

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

and

Mia Farrow Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequent ...

. Heller worked as a Warner Bros. executive, overseeing such films as ''

'', starring

James Garner James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including '' The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Chayefsky's ''The Ameri ...

, and ''

Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates ...

'', starring

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

. In 1973, Heller founded Sequoia Pictures, Inc., a production house affiliated with

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

The company's first production was ''

'', the film that spurred interest in the martial arts genre and which introduced

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...

to the international film market. His production company Paul Heller Productions produced ''

First Monday in October ''First Monday in October'' is a 1978 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The title refers to the day on which the United States Supreme Court traditionally convenes following its summer recess. Productions The play premiered on Broadwa ...

'', starring

Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (; born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director. He is best known for his film roles in '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957), ''King Creole'' (1958) and as a coach of a ...

and

Jill Clayburgh Jill Clayburgh (April 30, 1944 – November 5, 2010) was an American actress known for her work in theater, television, and cinema. She received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Act ...

, and the critically acclaimed British film ''

'', written and directed by

Bruce Robinson Bruce Robinson (born 2 May 1946) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote and directed the cult classic ''Withnail and I'' (1987), a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the late 1960s, which drew on hi ...

. He produced the first made-for-cable feature film, titled ''Falcon's Gold'', and then Showtime's ''

Pygmalion Pygmalion or Pigmalion may refer to: Mythology * Pygmalion (mythology), a sculptor who fell in love with his statue Stage * ''Pigmalion'' (opera), a 1745 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau * ''Pygmalion'' (Rousseau), a 1762 melodrama by Jean-Jacques ...

'', starring

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic ...

and

Margot Kidder Margaret Ruth Kidder (October 17, 1948 – May 13, 2018), known professionally as Margot Kidder, was a Canadian-American actress whose career spanned five decades. Her accolades include three Canadian Screen Awards and one Daytime Emmy Awa ...

Television production

Heller first has produced the television movie ''

Wait Until Dark ''Wait Until Dark'' is a play by Frederick Knott, first performed on Broadway in 1966 and often revived since then. A film version was released in 1967, and the play was published in the same year. Synopsis Susy Hendrix is a blind Greenwich V ...

'', distributed by Warner Bros. and HBO in 1982. In the same year, he produced ''Falcon's Gold''. In 1998, he was involved in ''David and Lisa'', produced with Oprah's

Harpo Productions Harpo Productions (or Harpo Studios) is an American multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey and based in West Hollywood, California. It is the sole subsidiary of her media and entertainment company Harpo, Inc. The name "Harpo" is ...

. During this time, Heller renewed his interest in teaching promising young students of film. Heller was approached by the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

to develop a producing program for their new school in Los Angeles, the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Studies. He previously taught at New York University and Columbia University as well as founded the Community Film Workshop Council with the American Film Institute. This was followed by lectures at conferences and by teaching two master programs at the University of California, Los Angeles. He headed the education and outreach committee of the

British Academy of Film and Television Arts British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in Los Angeles.

Philanthropic activities

In 1989, Heller founded ASK Theatre, a nonprofit group dedicated to new plays and playwrights, which works together with the Mark Taper Theatre in Los Angeles, The Royal Court Theatre in London and

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

in New York. He was also a member of the

American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

and served on the board of directors of the

as well as on the board of the Hearst Castle Preservation Foundation. He was a member of the

United Scenic Artists United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, formerly known as United Scenic Artists of America (USAA), is an American labor union. It is a nationwide autonomous Local of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. It organizes designer ...

, the

Directors Guild The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...

and the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

. In October 2010, Heller made an opening remark for the

Koyamada International Foundation Koyamada International Foundation, commonly referred to as KIF or KIF Global, is an international non-governmental organization, with its mission to improve quality of people's life by empowering global youth and women to reach their full potent ...

's ''United States Martial Arts Festival'' with his friend

Shin Koyamada is a Japanese Americans, Japanese-American actor, producer, entrepreneur, martial artist, and philanthropist. He is best known for his starring roles in ''The Last Samurai'' and the Disney's movie ''Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior'' on Disney+. He ...

at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center in Redondo Beach, California. Heller served on the board of directors of the Koyamada Foundation.

Multimedia and theatrical

Heller was a pioneer in the field of multimedia and theatrical presentations. His productions include The New York Experience, which played for 16 years at Rockefeller Center, and The South Street Venture, an attraction for seven years at the Dockland of New York City. He completed the audiovisual and multimedia exhibits for the

Skirball Cultural Center The Skirball Cultural Center, founded in 1996, is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles, California. The center, named after philanthropist-couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, features a museum with regularly changing exh ...

in Los Angeles.

Filmography (producer)

Films

* ''

'' (1962) * ''Once Upon a Tractor'' (1965) * ''The Eavesdropper'' (1966) * ''The Best of Laurel and Hardy'' (1967) * ''

'' (1968) * ''Stop'' (1970) * ''

'' (1973) * ''

'' (1974) * ''

Truck Turner ''Truck Turner'', also known as ''Black Bullet'', is a 1974 blaxploitation film, starring Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto, and directed by Jonathan Kaplan. The screenplay was written by Michael Allin, Leigh Chapman (under a pseudonym, Jerry Wilkes), ...

'' (1974) * ''

The Ultimate Warrior Warrior (born James Brian Hellwig; June 16, 1959 – April 8, 2014) was an American professional wrestler and bodybuilder. Best known by his ring name The Ultimate Warrior, he wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 198 ...

'' (1975) * ''

The Wilby Conspiracy ''The Wilby Conspiracy'' is a 1975 British adventure thriller film directed by Ralph Nelson and starring Michael Caine, Sidney Poitier, and Nicol Williamson. Filmed in Kenya, it was written by Rodney Amateau, based on the 1972 novel by Peter Dr ...

'' (1975) * ''The Barony'' (1975) * ''Dirty Knight's Work'' (1976) * ''Crazy Animals'' (1976) * '' Hot Potato'' (1976) * '' The Pack'' (1977) * '' The Promise'' (1979) * ''

'' (1981) * ''

Withnail & I ''Withnail and I'' is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by Richard E. Gran ...

'' (1987) * '' My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown'' (1989) * ''Fatal Inheritance'' (1993) * ''

'' (1999) * ''Blood and Steel: Making 'Enter the Dragon'' (2003)

Television

TV movies

* ''Wait Until Dark'' (1982, producer) * ''Falcon's Gold'' (1982, producer) * ''David and Lisa'' (1998, producer)

Filmography (actor)

* ''

'' (1973) as Radio Operator * ''

'' (1999) as Milkman

References

External links

Paul Heller Productions
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heller, Paul American film producers 1927 births 2020 deaths