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Rob Cohen

Rob Cohen
US Navy 040618-N-6817C-090 Director Rob Cohen visits with Commanding Officer, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Capt. Kendall L. Card, on the bridge after the completion of filming, the upcoming motion picture Stealth (cropped).JPG
Cohen on the bridge of the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in 2004
Born (1949-03-12) March 12, 1949 (age 67)
Cornwall, New York, United States
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupation Film director, producer, actor, screenwriter
Years active 1975–present

Rob Cohen (born March 12, 1949) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter.

Cohen began his career as a producer, before concentrating full-time on directing from the 1990s, with action films such as XXX and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, along with fantasy films like Dragonheart and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. He is the creator of The Fast and the Furious film franchise.

Cohen was born in Cornwall, New York. He attended Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in the class of ’71, concentrating in a cross major between anthropology and visual studies. His first endeavor in filmmaking was a commissioned recruiting film for Harvard's Admissions Office in 1970, which became his senior thesis.

Upon graduation, Cohen immediately headed to Los Angeles to work as a screenwriter for Martin Jurow but soon found himself unemployed when the producer moved out of state.

After a six-month stint as a kennel boy at the Harvey Animal Hospital in West Hollywood to make ends meet, Cohen landed a job as a reader for then-agent Mike Medavoy. Six weeks into his tenure at International Famous Agency (now part of ICM), he distinguished himself by discovering an unheralded script he found in a slush pile of neglected screenplays. Recognizing its quality, commerciality and uniqueness, Cohen wrote in his coverage that it was "the great American screenplay and this will make an award-winning, major-cast, major-director film"[1]. He championed the piece relentlessly, with his own job at stake, as Medavoy said that he would try to sell it on that recommendation, but promising to fire Cohen if he could not. Universal bought it that afternoon for a record price, and it became the Academy Award winning movie, The Sting (1973). Cohen still keeps the coverage framed on the wall of his office, as this gave him his first identity in Hollywood: "the kid who found "The Sting"’


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