Mike Medavoy

Mike Medavoy
Medavoy at the 2012 premiere of What to Expect When You're Expecting
Born	Morris Mike Medavoy (1941-01-21) January 21, 1941 (age 76) Shanghai, China
Occupation	Film producer, business executive
Spouse(s)	Patricia Duff (1986-1994; divorced) Irena Ferris
Children	2

Morris Mike Medavoy (born January 21, 1941) is an American film producer and executive, co-founder of Orion Pictures (1978), former chairman of TriStar Pictures, former head of production for United Artists (1974–1978) and current chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures.

Morris Mike Medavoy was born in 1941, in Shanghai, China. His father, Michael, was a garage mechanic, and his mother, Dora, had a dress shop for Chinese actresses. His parents were both from Jewish families. His mother was born in Harbin, Manchuria (to parents originally from Odessa) and his father was born in Ukraine. Medavoy lived in Chile from 1947 to 1957, and he studied at the Liceo Valentín Letelier de Santiago, where he learned to speak Spanish fluently. He became an American citizen in 1963. and graduated from UCLA that same year.

Medavoy began his career at Universal Studios in 1964. In 1965 he became an agent at the General Artists Corporation and later moving into the vice president position of the Creative Management Agency. He became Creative Management's vice president of the motion picture department in 1967, where he worked with Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola among others and headed to IFA in 1970. In 1974, United Artists brought Medavoy in as senior vice president of production. There, he was part of the team responsible for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, and Annie Hall, which won best Pictures Oscars® in 1975, 1976 and 1977 respectively. United Artists made a number of other notable films at the time, including Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Network and Coming Home.