Nick Heath
Encyclopedia
Nick Heath is an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 music, television and film producer, publisher, designer and founder of Birdland Film, Nick Heath Design Group and Heath Media.

Son of British big band leader Ted Heath
Ted Heath (bandleader)
Ted Heath, musician and big band leader, led Britain's greatest post-war big band recording more than 100 albums and selling over 20 million records...

, he is the recipient of numerous awards for his endeavors in the entertainment industry.

Additionally, one of his architectural/design projects (in Fulham, London) was listed as part of London’s Annual Open House for the ‘Best Buildings In The City’.

Music

He joined Robbins Music Corporation – the music publishing division of MGM, in the A&R department, and was initially responsible for managing the company’s film soundtrack division including:
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

, Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 American comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography...

, Kiss Me Kate, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably...

, High Society, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...

, Gigi
Gigi (1958 film)
Gigi is a 1958 musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette...

, Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur (1959 film)
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...

, North by Northwest
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...

, How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won (film)
How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film. The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. It follows four generations of a family as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean...

, Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago
-Original creation:*Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak, published in 1957**Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago, a fictional character and the main protagonist of the book Doctor Zhivago-Adaptations:There are several adaptations based on the Doctor Zhivago book:...

, 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...

, The Thomas Crown Affair
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 film)
The Thomas Crown Affair is a 1968 film by Norman Jewison starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Award for Best Song with Michel Legrand's "Windmills of Your Mind"...

, Shaft
Shaft (1971 film)
Shaft is a 1971 American blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Parks, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. An action film with elements of film noir, Shaft tells the story of a black private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob neighborhoods in order to find the...

 and Ken Russell’s production of The Boyfriend with Twiggy
Twiggy
Lesley Lawson née Hornby known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree....

 and Timothy Buttons.

Establishing, and heading up a contemporary song writing division for Robbins, and setting up EMI Music Publishing, Heath worked with John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...

, Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...

, Mickey Gallagher
Mickey Gallagher
Michael William Gallagher also known as Mick Gallagher and Mickey Gallagher is a British Hammond organ player and best known as a member of Ian Dury and the Blockheads and for his contributions to albums by the Clash...

 and John Turnbull.

He formed the artiste management company, Firework, who signed the Scottish band Pilot
Pilot (band)
Pilot was a pop rock musical group, formed during 1973 in Edinburgh, Scotland by the former Bay City Rollers members, David Paton and Billy Lyall.-Career:...

, and they had chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 success with "Magic
Magic (Pilot song)
"Magic" is a popular song from 1974, and was the first hit single for the Scottish band Pilot. It was written by Pilot's Dave Paton.It charted most successfully in Canada, where it reached #1, topping the RPM national singles chart on July 19, 1975, and received a gold certification...

" and "January
January (Pilot song)
"January" is a pop rock song recorded by the Scottish rock band Pilot. Written by David Paton and produced by Alan Parsons, "January" was the sole number one single in the UK for Pilot, ironically spending all of its three week chart run at the top in February 1975. It also charted in the United...

".

Founding Rialto Records, an independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

, he had further success with The Korgis
The Korgis
The Korgis are a British pop band, originally composed of singer / bassist James Warren and singer / drummer Andy Davis , both former members of 1970s band Stackridge, along with unofficial members violinist Stuart Gordon and keyboardist Phil Harrison.-Career:The Korgis released their first single...

 and The Mobiles
The Mobiles
The Mobiles were a UK 1980s synth pop band, whose existence was notable for their one major hit single, early in 1982, with the song "Drowning in Berlin". It reached #9 in the UK Singles Chart...

. Rialto Art, became an award winning design agency with Design & Art Direction (D&AD
D&AD
Design and Art Direction is a British educational charity which exists to promote excellence in design and advertising...

).

Publishing

Heath founded The Rainbow Group of companies representing Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

, Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

, Paramount
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...

, and Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 which exclusively published book and audio editions of the film output from these studios, including Jungle Book, A-Team, Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis and follows three eccentric parapsychologists in New York City, who start a...

. He produced the award winning dramatized 'Theatre for Children' series of Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...

 books Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of the eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka....

, James and the Giant Peach
James and the Giant Peach
James and the Giant Peach is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The original first edition published by Alfred Knopf featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. However, there have been various reillustrated versions of it over the years, done by Michael...

, The BFG
The BFG
The BFG is a children's book written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake, first published in 1982. The book was an expansion of a story told in Danny, the Champion of the World, an earlier Dahl book...

 and Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr Fox is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1970 by George Allen & Unwin in the UK and Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S., with illustrations by Donald Chaffin. The book was later published with new illustrations by Jill Bennett, Tony Ross and Quentin...

.

Television

With Nick Austin (Beggars Banquet Records
Beggars Banquet Records
Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...

) and Mike Appleton, he executive produced the 'Art of Landscape' classical music series, providing Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 with more than 200 hours of daytime music television programming.

Film

Heath formed producer partnerships with Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in...

 at Columbia Pictures, and Andrew Eaton
Andrew Eaton
Andrew Eaton is a film producer and the recipient of several awards including the British Independent Film Award Producer of the Year 2000. He was educated at Campbell College, Belfast and Churchill College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1982. His film, In This World won the 2004 BAFTA Award...

 and Michael Winterbottom
Michael Winterbottom
Michael Winterbottom is a prolific English filmmaker who has directed seventeen feature films in the past fifteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features...

 at Polygram/Universal.

He executive produced the Toronto World of Comedy Film Festival
World of Comedy Film Festival
The World of Comedy Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It usually takes place in the last week of February. It features comedies from Canada and all over the world....

 selection The Most Unromantic Man In The World, which was written and directed by his son, James Heath and Gratian Dimech
Gratian Dimech
Gratian Dimech is a British film, commercial and music video director.In 2003 he formed Burning Vision Entertainment with fellow director James Heath. Their debut video was for the band Tommi and was the first UK music video to be shot on the Sony High Definition cameras used by George Lucas on...

.

In 2009, Heath formed a US based feature film production company, Birdland Film. Birdland's first feature "Bigger than Jesus", will commence shooting in 2011.

Design

Founder of the Nick Heath Design Group, Heath has designed residential and commercial buildings and interiors in the UK and the US. One of his recent projects in London, The Piper Building, was listed as one of 'Best Buildings In The City' as part of the London Annual Open House.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK