John D. Hancock
Encyclopedia
John D. Hancock is an American stage and film director, producer and writer. He is the son of Ralph and Ella Mae Rosenthal Hancock. His father was a musician with the NBC Symphony Orchestra
in Chicago
, Illinois
and his mother a school teacher. Hancock spent his youth between their home in Chicago and their fruit farm in La Porte, Indiana. In high school he was the Assistant Concertmaster of the Chicago Youth Orchestra playing the violin. He is perhaps best known for his work on Bang the Drum Slowly
.
. He continued his theatrical studies in Europe with a grant from Harvard including observing Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble
.
He made his directorial debut at age twenty-two with the Off-Broadway hit production of Brecht's
Man Equals Man
. This was followed by Robert Lowell's Endicott and the Red Cross at the American Place Theatre
and in 1968 Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Theatre de Lys
with sets by Jim Dine. Hancock won the Obie Award
for Distinguished Director for the 1967-68 season. Cue Magazine noted, "This brutal, vulgar, and erotic production of Shakespeare's sex fantasy is the most original and arresting I've ever witnessed. This is the best of all the Dreams and an important pioneering effort in re-interpreting the play." Hancock's theatrical work includes direction of both classic and contemporary plays, from Shakespeare to Saul Bellow.
Hancock's success on the New York stage led to his appointment as Artistic Director of the famed San Francisco Actor's Workshop in 1965. He later was appointed Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh Playhouse
and The New Repertory Theatre in New York City.
Hancock worked closely on several occasions with Tennessee Williams, who states in his book MEMOIRS "... under the inspired direction of John Hancock--the only director who has ever suggested to me transpositions of material that were artistically effective--..."
Hancock wrote and directed the play The Brother in 2007 for a 12-week run at the Theatre Building in Chicago. The spy thriller is based on the book written by Sam Roberts noted author and New York Times editor. The play is based mostly on the untold story of David Greenglass who turned in Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving atomic bomb secrets to the Russians. "It (The Brother) is incredibly powerful. It is exceptional and really not to be missed."
In 2007, Hancock also directed a 12-week run of the Pultizer-winner
night, Mother starring Elaine Rivkin and Dorothy Tristan at the Theatre Building in Chicago which opened to rave reviews from the Chicago Reader.
In July 2009, Noises Off
directed by John Hancock received generally positive reviews and sell out houses at the Wellfleet Harbor Arts Theatre Julie Harris Stage in Cape Cod
, MA.
"Making his Wellfleet debut, Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning director John Hancock displays his ability to make a play flow smoothly. A fast-paced romp from beginning to end. A backstage pass to hilarity."
"If you need a laugh, you're guaranteed to get many of them at this Noises Off. Director John Hancock is working here almost more as traffic cop or circus ringmaster or knife juggler as he skillfully keeps his nine actors racing through meticulous comedic choreography."
"Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning director John Hancock has pulled together a cast of nine who are experts in timing, the main ingredient for this fact-paced play within a play. WHAT's Noises Off is an assignment in glee, it is a sure winner that brings not only hee-haws from the audience but gut-wrenching chortles. Be prepared to laugh."
"The audiences have been literally gasping, hooting, roaring with laughter! It closed out it record breaking run directed by John Hancock."
In 1970, his Sticky My Fingers... Fleet My Feet was nominated for the Short-Subject Live-Action
Oscar. Hancock directed this award winning short film with a grant from the American Film Institute. CBS purchased the short film and aired it during halftime of their Thanksgiving football game. It was released nationally with the Woody Allen feature Bananas. Sticky My Fingers...Fleet My Feet is available in many libraries.
As a feature film director, he is best known for the 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly
, starring Robert De Niro
. His other film-directing credits in the 1970s were California Dreaming, Let's Scare Jessica to Death
, and Baby Blue Marine. He was divorced from Ann Arensberg in 1974, and married actress Dorothy Tristan in December 1975.
Hancock served on the Board of Trustees for the American Film Institute
between 1973-1977.
A very difficult and controversial period that surrounded Hancock involved Jaws 2
which impacted his career as a director. Hancock did not have the experience to deal with the bureaucracy and became a pawn between the powerful political Hollywood studio players. He was the original director of Jaws 2
, with his wife invited to work on rewrites of the screenplay. Hancock began to feel the pressure of directing his first epic adventure film "with only three film credits, and all small-scale dramas". "My Jaws 2 was darker than the first Jaws. I thought, 'This Island has suffered a terrible calamity and we ought to show the residue of that.' We really got into it and took it seriously. We treated it as if Jaws had really happened and these are the repercussions on the community. The economy is ruined because no one wants to go to Amity after the shark. Roy Schneider's Brody is haunted by it. He has nightmares, and sees sharks everywhere." "Not everyone wanted the dark tone. "When she saw the dailies, Verna Fields said, 'It's so contrasty and blue, can that be changed if we decided to fix that in post [production]?' The cameraman said 'Absolutely!' That didn't become a problem - the problem really was the power struggle between Zanuck and Sheinberg over the overages on the first picture and 'who was the better man' - that kind of thing." "Obviously, what I should have done then was to get Zanuck and Sheinberg in the same room and say, "Okay", you guys should give me direction, because I really don't want to get between you two. I was caught between these huge forces like a babe in the woods and paid the price for it. Jaws 2 is a very bitter, painful experience that took years to recover from." June 1977, after a meeting with the producers and Universal executives, the director was fired. He and his wife were unexpectedly whisked away to Rome
and production was shut down for a few weeks. They had been involved in the film for eighteen months. The role was taken over by Jeannot Szwarc
.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Hancock directed episodes of NBC's Hill Street Blues and CBS's Twilight Zone on television and in films such as the Nick Nolte
prison story Weeds
and the holiday family movie Prancer
.
In 1998, Hancock opened his production company FilmAcres in LaPorte, Indiana. In 1999, he produced and directed A Piece of Eden starring Tyne Daly
. It is a semi-autobiographical story about a fruit farm and the relationship between a father and his son. The suspense thriller Suspended Animation was directed by Hancock in 2001.
NBC Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and his mother a school teacher. Hancock spent his youth between their home in Chicago and their fruit farm in La Porte, Indiana. In high school he was the Assistant Concertmaster of the Chicago Youth Orchestra playing the violin. He is perhaps best known for his work on Bang the Drum Slowly
Bang the Drum Slowly (film)
Bang the Drum Slowly is a 1973 film adaptation of the 1956 baseball novel of the same name by Mark Harris. It was previously dramatized in 1956 on the U.S. Steel Hour with Paul Newman and Albert Salmi....
.
Career
Hancock graduated from Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. He continued his theatrical studies in Europe with a grant from Harvard including observing Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble
Berliner Ensemble
The Berliner Ensemble is a German theatre company established by playwright Bertolt Brecht and his wife, Helene Weigel in January 1949 in East Berlin...
.
He made his directorial debut at age twenty-two with the Off-Broadway hit production of Brecht's
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
Man Equals Man
Man Equals Man
Man Equals Man , or A Man's a Man, is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. One of Brecht's earlier works, it explores themes of war, human fungibility, and identity...
. This was followed by Robert Lowell's Endicott and the Red Cross at the American Place Theatre
The American Place Theatre
The American Place Theatre was founded in 1963 by Wynn Handman, Sidney Lanier, and Michael Tolan at St. Clement's Church, far west on 46th Street in New York City and was incorporated as a not-for-profit theatre in that year. Tennessee Williams and Myrna Loy were two of the original Board members...
and in 1968 Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Theatre de Lys
Lucille Lortel Theatre
The Lucille Lortel Theatre is an off-Broadway playhouse located at 121 Christopher Street in New York City's Greenwich Village.The venue was built in 1926 as a 590-seat movie theater called the New Hudson, later known as Hudson Playhouse...
with sets by Jim Dine. Hancock won the Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for Distinguished Director for the 1967-68 season. Cue Magazine noted, "This brutal, vulgar, and erotic production of Shakespeare's sex fantasy is the most original and arresting I've ever witnessed. This is the best of all the Dreams and an important pioneering effort in re-interpreting the play." Hancock's theatrical work includes direction of both classic and contemporary plays, from Shakespeare to Saul Bellow.
Hancock's success on the New York stage led to his appointment as Artistic Director of the famed San Francisco Actor's Workshop in 1965. He later was appointed Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh Playhouse
Pittsburgh Playhouse
Pittsburgh Playhouse is Point Park University's performing arts center located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It houses three performance spaces and is home to The Rep, Point Park's resident professional theatre company, as well as three student companies—Conservatory Theatre Company, Conservatory...
and The New Repertory Theatre in New York City.
Hancock worked closely on several occasions with Tennessee Williams, who states in his book MEMOIRS "... under the inspired direction of John Hancock--the only director who has ever suggested to me transpositions of material that were artistically effective--..."
Hancock wrote and directed the play The Brother in 2007 for a 12-week run at the Theatre Building in Chicago. The spy thriller is based on the book written by Sam Roberts noted author and New York Times editor. The play is based mostly on the untold story of David Greenglass who turned in Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving atomic bomb secrets to the Russians. "It (The Brother) is incredibly powerful. It is exceptional and really not to be missed."
In 2007, Hancock also directed a 12-week run of the Pultizer-winner
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
night, Mother starring Elaine Rivkin and Dorothy Tristan at the Theatre Building in Chicago which opened to rave reviews from the Chicago Reader.
In July 2009, Noises Off
Noises Off
Noises Off is a 1982 play by English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of Chinamen, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave...
directed by John Hancock received generally positive reviews and sell out houses at the Wellfleet Harbor Arts Theatre Julie Harris Stage in Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
, MA.
"Making his Wellfleet debut, Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning director John Hancock displays his ability to make a play flow smoothly. A fast-paced romp from beginning to end. A backstage pass to hilarity."
"If you need a laugh, you're guaranteed to get many of them at this Noises Off. Director John Hancock is working here almost more as traffic cop or circus ringmaster or knife juggler as he skillfully keeps his nine actors racing through meticulous comedic choreography."
"Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning director John Hancock has pulled together a cast of nine who are experts in timing, the main ingredient for this fact-paced play within a play. WHAT's Noises Off is an assignment in glee, it is a sure winner that brings not only hee-haws from the audience but gut-wrenching chortles. Be prepared to laugh."
"The audiences have been literally gasping, hooting, roaring with laughter! It closed out it record breaking run directed by John Hancock."
In 1970, his Sticky My Fingers... Fleet My Feet was nominated for the Short-Subject Live-Action
Academy Award for Live Action Short Film
This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...
Oscar. Hancock directed this award winning short film with a grant from the American Film Institute. CBS purchased the short film and aired it during halftime of their Thanksgiving football game. It was released nationally with the Woody Allen feature Bananas. Sticky My Fingers...Fleet My Feet is available in many libraries.
As a feature film director, he is best known for the 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly
Bang the Drum Slowly (film)
Bang the Drum Slowly is a 1973 film adaptation of the 1956 baseball novel of the same name by Mark Harris. It was previously dramatized in 1956 on the U.S. Steel Hour with Paul Newman and Albert Salmi....
, starring Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
. His other film-directing credits in the 1970s were California Dreaming, Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Let's Scare Jessica to Death is a 1971 low budget American horror film, directed by John D. Hancock, and starring Zohra Lampert in the title role. The film focuses on a recently institutionalized woman who has various nightmarish experiences after moving to an old farmhouse on a Connecticut island...
, and Baby Blue Marine. He was divorced from Ann Arensberg in 1974, and married actress Dorothy Tristan in December 1975.
Hancock served on the Board of Trustees for the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
between 1973-1977.
A very difficult and controversial period that surrounded Hancock involved Jaws 2
Jaws 2
Jaws 2 is a 1978 thriller film and the first sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws , which is based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name...
which impacted his career as a director. Hancock did not have the experience to deal with the bureaucracy and became a pawn between the powerful political Hollywood studio players. He was the original director of Jaws 2
Jaws 2
Jaws 2 is a 1978 thriller film and the first sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws , which is based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name...
, with his wife invited to work on rewrites of the screenplay. Hancock began to feel the pressure of directing his first epic adventure film "with only three film credits, and all small-scale dramas". "My Jaws 2 was darker than the first Jaws. I thought, 'This Island has suffered a terrible calamity and we ought to show the residue of that.' We really got into it and took it seriously. We treated it as if Jaws had really happened and these are the repercussions on the community. The economy is ruined because no one wants to go to Amity after the shark. Roy Schneider's Brody is haunted by it. He has nightmares, and sees sharks everywhere." "Not everyone wanted the dark tone. "When she saw the dailies, Verna Fields said, 'It's so contrasty and blue, can that be changed if we decided to fix that in post [production]?' The cameraman said 'Absolutely!' That didn't become a problem - the problem really was the power struggle between Zanuck and Sheinberg over the overages on the first picture and 'who was the better man' - that kind of thing." "Obviously, what I should have done then was to get Zanuck and Sheinberg in the same room and say, "Okay", you guys should give me direction, because I really don't want to get between you two. I was caught between these huge forces like a babe in the woods and paid the price for it. Jaws 2 is a very bitter, painful experience that took years to recover from." June 1977, after a meeting with the producers and Universal executives, the director was fired. He and his wife were unexpectedly whisked away to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and production was shut down for a few weeks. They had been involved in the film for eighteen months. The role was taken over by Jeannot Szwarc
Jeannot Szwarc
Jeannot Szwarc is a French Film/TV Director.Szwarc was born in Paris. He began working as a director in American television during the 1960s, in particular on Ironside...
.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Hancock directed episodes of NBC's Hill Street Blues and CBS's Twilight Zone on television and in films such as the Nick Nolte
Nick Nolte
Nicholas King "Nick" Nolte is an American actor whose career has spanned over five decades, peaking in the 1990s when his commercial success made him one of the most popular celebrities of that decade.-Early life:...
prison story Weeds
Weeds (film)
Weeds is a 1987 American drama film about a prison inmate who writes a play that catches the attention of a visiting reporter. The film was directed by John D...
and the holiday family movie Prancer
Prancer (film)
Prancer is a 1989 family film starring Sam Elliott and Cloris Leachman. It was directed by John D. Hancock. It is set in Three Oaks, Michigan, where town exteriors were filmed...
.
In 1998, Hancock opened his production company FilmAcres in LaPorte, Indiana. In 1999, he produced and directed A Piece of Eden starring Tyne Daly
Tyne Daly
Tyne Daly is an American stage and screen actress, widely known for her work as Detective Mary Beth Lacey in the television series Cagney & Lacey and as Maxine Gray in the television series Judging Amy. She is also known for her role as Alice Henderson in television series Christy...
. It is a semi-autobiographical story about a fruit farm and the relationship between a father and his son. The suspense thriller Suspended Animation was directed by Hancock in 2001.
Awards
- Brandeis University - Citation in Film - it reads as follows:
"A gifted young director, he won an Academy Award Nomination with his first film a short subject titled Sticky My Fingers...Fleet My Feet. His next effort a full length feature, was a psychological thriller, Let's Scare Jessica to Death. It moved Mr. Hancock from comedy to terror in one long leap. He took yet another leap forward in his most ambitions and certainly his best film to date, with a fine sense of pace and artful composition, this recent work help pop Robert DeNiro into stardom and introduced another fine actor, Michael Moriarty, to films. His flair for warm comedy, gentle satire and strong emotional sensitivity combine to fashion motion pictures that are increasingly hailed by critics and audiences alike."
- Creative Arts Award Commission for Sticky My Fingers...Fleet My Feet.
- Outstanding Achievement Critics Choice - Sticky My Fingers...Fleet My Feet. American Film Institute