Ned Tanen
Encyclopedia
Ned Stone Tanen was an American
movie studio
executive behind films that included American Graffiti
and Animal House.
Tanen was born in Los Angeles and served in the United States Air Force
after graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles
. Following his military service, he got a job in 1954 in the MCA
mailroom. He helped form the Uni Records
label at MCA in 1967. Artists recording on the Uni label included Neil Diamond
, Elton John
, Olivia Newton-John
and the Strawberry Alarm Clock
. Uni Records later merged with Decca Records
to become MCA Records
.
He served as production supervisor on the 1971 Milos Forman
film Taking Off
, which became his springboard into film production at Universal Pictures
, a subsidiary of MCA. Tanen was named president of Universal's film division in 1976. His projects at Universal included a wide-ranging variety of box office and critical success, including the 1973 film American Graffiti
, Jaws
(1975), Smokey and the Bandit
(1977), The Deer Hunter
(1978), Melvin and Howard
(1980) and Missing
(1982). His 1980 films set an industry box office receipts record of $290 million, with releases including Coal Miner's Daughter
, The Blues Brothers
and Smokey and the Bandit II
. He resigned from Universal in December 1982.
In a 1978 article in The New York Times
, Tanen described how some of the biggest box office grossing films take on a life of their own, describing the success of the film Animal House was a surprise, acknowledging that "All we did was make a picture about college fraternity life in the 1960's".
He had left Universal saying he wanted to leave the Hollywood game and established Channel Productions, which produced the 1984 film Sixteen Candles
and a pair of 1985 releases, The Breakfast Club
and St. Elmo's Fire
.
Moving to Paramount Pictures
in October 1984, Tanen served as head of the studio's motion picture division, producing box office successes including the 1986 films Crocodile Dundee
and Top Gun
, and the 1987 releases Fatal Attraction
and Beverly Hills Cop II
, leading Paramount to post the top revenues among all studios in both 1986 and 1987. The studio's films in 1986 drew receipts of $600 million, more than twice its nearest competitor and setting an industry record at the time. Other films produced by Paramount during his time there include Ferris Bueller's Day Off
(1986), Children of a Lesser God
(1986), Fatal Attraction
(1987), The Accused (1988) and Ghost
(1990). Tanen resigned in November 1988, with the responsibilities included in his position split between Sid Ganis
and Barry London.
The character Biff Tannen
in the Back to the Future films was named after Tanen. Writers Bob Gale
and Robert Zemeckis
, had met with Tanen during a script meeting for I Wanna Hold Your Hand
, and Tanen had reacted in aggressive fashion to their writing.
Tanen went back to independent film production after leaving Paramount, working on films such as Guarding Tess
(1994), Cops & Robbersons (1994) and Mary Reilly
(1996).
Tanen died at age 77 on January 5, 2009 in his home in Santa Monica, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
movie studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
executive behind films that included American Graffiti
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
and Animal House.
Tanen was born in Los Angeles and served in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
after graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
. Following his military service, he got a job in 1954 in the MCA
Music Corporation of America
MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...
mailroom. He helped form the Uni Records
Uni Records
Uni Records was a record label owned by MCA Inc. The brand, which long featured a distinct UNi logo, was established in 1966 by MCA executive Ned Tanen and developed by music industry veteran Russ Regan...
label at MCA in 1967. Artists recording on the Uni label included Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
and the Strawberry Alarm Clock
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Strawberry Alarm Clock is a psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles best known for their 1967 hit "Incense and Peppermints". The group took its name as an homage to the Beatles' psychedelic hit "Strawberry Fields Forever", reportedly, at the suggestion of their record company Uni Records.They are...
. Uni Records later merged with Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
to become MCA Records
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
.
He served as production supervisor on the 1971 Milos Forman
Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...
film Taking Off
Taking Off (film)
Taking Off is a 1971 film comedy. It was Czech director Milos Forman's first American film. It tells the story of a group of parents whose children have run away from home...
, which became his springboard into film production at Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, a subsidiary of MCA. Tanen was named president of Universal's film division in 1976. His projects at Universal included a wide-ranging variety of box office and critical success, including the 1973 film American Graffiti
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
, Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
(1975), Smokey and the Bandit
Smokey and the Bandit
Smokey and the Bandit is a 1977 American film starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams, and Mike Henry. It inspired several other trucking films, including two sequels, Smokey and the Bandit II, and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3...
(1977), The Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale, and George Dzundza...
(1978), Melvin and Howard
Melvin and Howard
Melvin and Howard is a 1980 American comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Demme. The screenplay by Bo Goldman was inspired by real-life Utah service station owner Melvin Dummar, who was listed as the beneficiary of USD$156 million in a will allegedly handwritten by Howard Hughes that was...
(1980) and Missing
Missing (film)
Missing is a 1982 American drama film directed by Costa Gavras, and starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi and Janice Rule...
(1982). His 1980 films set an industry box office receipts record of $290 million, with releases including Coal Miner's Daughter
Coal Miner's Daughter
Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 American biographical film which tells the story of country music icon Loretta Lynn. It stars Sissy Spacek in her Academy Award for Best Actress winning role, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo and Levon Helm, and was directed by Michael Apted.-Background:The film was...
, The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
and Smokey and the Bandit II
Smokey and the Bandit II
Smokey and the Bandit II is a comedy film released on August 15, 1980 in the United States. It is the sequel to the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit. The film stars Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleason, and Dom DeLuise...
. He resigned from Universal in December 1982.
In a 1978 article in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Tanen described how some of the biggest box office grossing films take on a life of their own, describing the success of the film Animal House was a surprise, acknowledging that "All we did was make a picture about college fraternity life in the 1960's".
He had left Universal saying he wanted to leave the Hollywood game and established Channel Productions, which produced the 1984 film Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.- Plot :...
and a pair of 1985 releases, The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American teen drama film written and directed by John Hughes. The storyline follows five teenagers as they spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all deeper than their respective stereotypes.-Plot:The plot follows five students at...
and St. Elmo's Fire
St. Elmo's Fire (film)
St. Elmo's Fire is a 1985 American coming-of-age film directed by Joel Schumacher. The film, starring Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham, is a prominent movie of the Brat Pack genre, and revolves around a group of friends that have...
.
Moving to Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
in October 1984, Tanen served as head of the studio's motion picture division, producing box office successes including the 1986 films Crocodile Dundee
Crocodile Dundee
"Crocodile" Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as Sue Charlton....
and Top Gun
Top Gun
Top Gun may refer to:* Top Gun is a 1986 film starring Tom Cruise.**Top Gun , soundtrack to the movie**Top Gun , a number of games based on the movie...
, and the 1987 releases Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction is a 1987 American thriller blended with horror, directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer. The film centers around a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end, resulting in emotional blackmail, stalking...
and Beverly Hills Cop II
Beverly Hills Cop II
Beverly Hills Cop II is a 1987 action-comedy film starring Eddie Murphy and directed by Tony Scott. It is the first sequel in the Beverly Hills Cop series. Murphy returns as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, who returns to Beverly Hills, California to track down a joint robbery/gun-running ring...
, leading Paramount to post the top revenues among all studios in both 1986 and 1987. The studio's films in 1986 drew receipts of $600 million, more than twice its nearest competitor and setting an industry record at the time. Other films produced by Paramount during his time there include Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...
(1986), Children of a Lesser God
Children of a Lesser God
Children of a Lesser God is a 1986 American romantic drama film directed by Randa Haines and written by Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff. An adaptation of Medoff's Tony Award-winning stage play of the same name, the film stars William Hurt and Marlee Matlin as two employees at a school for the deaf:...
(1986), Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction is a 1987 American thriller blended with horror, directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer. The film centers around a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end, resulting in emotional blackmail, stalking...
(1987), The Accused (1988) and Ghost
Ghost (film)
Ghost is a 1990 romantic drama film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. It was written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker.-Plot:...
(1990). Tanen resigned in November 1988, with the responsibilities included in his position split between Sid Ganis
Sid Ganis
Sidney Ganis is a Greek-American motion picture executive and producer who has produced such films as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Big Daddy, Mr. Deeds, The Master of Disguise and Akeelah and the Bee. On August 23, 2005 he was elected President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
and Barry London.
The character Biff Tannen
Biff Tannen
Biff Howard Tannen is a character in the Back to the Future trilogy, serving as the primary antagonist of the first two films. He is played by Thomas F. Wilson in all three films as well as the ride, and Wilson voiced the character in the animated series....
in the Back to the Future films was named after Tanen. Writers Bob Gale
Bob Gale
Michael Robert "Bob" Gale is an American screenwriter who co-wrote the science fiction film Back to the Future with writing partner Robert Zemeckis, and the screenplays for the film's two sequels. Gale also co-produced all three films....
and Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
, had met with Tanen during a script meeting for I Wanna Hold Your Hand
I Wanna Hold Your Hand (film)
I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a comedy film directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis, which takes its name from the 1963 song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles. It was produced and co-written by Bob Gale. The film is about "Beatlemania" and is a fictionalized account of the day of the...
, and Tanen had reacted in aggressive fashion to their writing.
Tanen went back to independent film production after leaving Paramount, working on films such as Guarding Tess
Guarding Tess
Guarding Tess is a 1994 film starring Shirley MacLaine and Nicolas Cage, directed by Hugh Wilson.MacLaine plays the part of a fictional former First Lady protected by an entourage of Secret Service bodyguards led by a reluctant Doug Chesnic ....
(1994), Cops & Robbersons (1994) and Mary Reilly
Mary Reilly (film)
Mary Reilly is a 1996 film directed by Stephen Frears. The movie was written by Christopher Hampton based on the novel Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin...
(1996).
Tanen died at age 77 on January 5, 2009 in his home in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
.