Topic: Bringing Back The Old Hollywood

Guest: Stephen Simon

Stephen Simon was born into a successful Hollywood family. His father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a producer/director who made films with stars such as Abbott and Costello, Lana Turner, and Red Skelton. He worked as both a producer and an executive at Columbia Pictures under the legendary Harry Cohn, producing films such as Born Yesterday, the 1950 film that garnered a Best Actress Oscar for star Judy Holliday.

Sylvan Simon died when Stephen was four years old, an event which compelled Frank Sinatra to become Stephen’s “godfather”.

Stephen’s mother Harriet remarried Armand Deutsch, a film producer at MGM who produced films with stars such as Robert Taylor, James Stewart, and Grace Kelly. Armand Deutsch adopted Stephen, changing the young boy’s last name to Deutsch.

In 1996, Stephen legally changed his name back to Simon.

In more than thirty years as a producer, director, and production executive, Stephen has been involved in the production of over twenty films.

Stephen personally produced such acclaimed projects as the Academy Award® winning What Dreams May Come (starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr.), the cult classic Somewhere in Time (Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour), and All The Right Moves (Tom Cruise).

Stephen was also co-executive producer on fan favorites Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (Keanu Reeves), produced She’s Out of Control (Tony Danza), executive produced Body of Evidence (Madonna), produced the first original film to premiere on the Internet (Quantum Project), starring John Cleese and Stephen Dorff, was an executive producer on Linda McCartney for CBS Television, and was nominated for an Emmy Award as one of the executive producers of Homeless to Harvard for Lifetime Television.

Stephen was the head of production of the film companies owned by legendary Hollywood producers Ray Stark (Funny Girl, The Goodbye Girl, The Way We Were) and Dino De Laurentiis (Serpico, La Strada, 3 Days of The Condor).
As an executive, Stephen supervised the development and/or production of films such as Smokey and The Bandit, Army of Darkness, Kuffs, The Cheap Detective, Russkies, The Gate, Murder by Death, The Wraith, Casey’s Shadow, Once Upon a Crime, and The Electric Horseman.

Stephen directed and produced Indigo and the film version of Conversations with God.
In 2004, Stephen co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle (www.spiritualcinemacircle.com), a monthly DVD distribution service that became an immediate international success, with subscribers in 2010 in almost one hundred countries.

Stephen has been a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences since 1984.

Stephen’s first book, The Force is With You, was published by Hampton Roads in 2002.Stephen has led seminars and workshops throughout the United States and Canada and has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs.

Stephen earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree from UCLA in 1971 and a Law Degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 1974. After being admitted to the California Bar in 1974, he practiced law briefly in Los Angeles before entering the film industry in 1976. Stephen’s sister is well-known film critic Susan Granger.

Stephen resides near Portland, Oregon with his wife Lauren, two of their six children, two cats, and a dog.

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