Irwin Winkler Biography (2)

In a career as celebrated as it is accomplished, Irwin Winkler's films have amassed 12 Academy Awards from 45 nominations including four Best Picture nominations a remarkable record which stands alone in contemporary Hollywood. Winkler is also the only producer to have three of his films listed on the American Film Institute list of the top 100 films of all time. Most recently, Winkler directed and produced the critically acclaimed drama Life as a House, starring Kevin Kline, Hayden Christensen and Kristen Scott Thomas (both Kline and Christensen were nominated for Screen Actor's Guild Awards). He also produced The Shipping News based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by E. Annie Proulx starring Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore and Judi Dench.

Winkler received the Academy Award for Best Picture for Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone. He went on to receive Best Picture nominations for Raging Bull, The Right Stuff and GoodFellas.

Winkler made his directorial debut in l989 with Guilty By Suspicion, a drama he also wrote, starring Robert De Niro, Annette Benning, Patricia Wettig and Martin Scorsese. His second feature as director, Night and the City, based on Jules Dassin's '50s noir film, reunited him with De Niro (their seventh film together) and also starred Jessica Lange (Oscar nominated for her role in the Winkler-produced Music Box). Winkler also directed and produced the suspense thrillers The Net with Sandra Bullock and At First Sight with Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino.

Winkler began his producing career in l967 with legendary director Norman Taurog at MGM with the Elvis Presley starrer Double Trouble and followed with the classic film noir Point Blank starring Lee Marvin. He then won acclaim for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which garnered nine Academy Award nominations.

Winkler went on to produce some of the most distinguished films in recent movie history including New York, New York starring De Niro and Liza Minnelli, True Confessions teaming De Niro and Robert Duvall, Round Midnight, for which Herbie Hancock won an Oscar for Best Score, Betrayed starring Debra Winger, and the Oscar nominated Music Box with Jessica Lange.

Winkler has been the recipient of numerous international honors for his outstanding achievements. He was personally honored by the French government with their highest decoration for contribution to the arts, the Commandeur des Arts et Lettres. The British Film Institute saluted him in l989 with a retrospective of his work and the Chicago Film Festival bestowed upon him their Lifetime Achievement Award and his alma mater, NYU, presented him with the school's highest honor, the Madden Memorial Award. His career and rich body of work have been honored by the Museum of Modern Art in l990 and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in l992. He also became the first producer to be honored with a retrospective of his films at the American Film Festival in Deauville and has also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Palm Springs Film Festival and the Flanders International Film Festival.

A year 2000 salute came to Winkler when a star with his name was added to the famous Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard in front of the new Kodak Theatre.

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