Frank Marshall (film producer)

Infobox Actor
name = Frank Marshall

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imagesize = 240px
caption = Marshall receives an Inkpot Award at the 1982 San Diego Comic Con. Credit to Alan Light.
birthdate = birth date and age|1946|9|13
birthplace = Los Angeles, California
birthname = Frank Wilson Marshall
othername =
occupation = film producer and director
spouse = Kathleen Kennedy (1987-)
website =

Frank Wilson Marshall (born September 13, 1946) is a four-time Academy Award-nominated American movie producer and director, often working in collaboration with his wife, Kathleen Kennedy. With Kennedy and Steven Spielberg, he was one of the founders of Amblin Entertainment. He is a partner with Kennedy in The Kennedy/Marshall Company, a film production company formed in 1991, which presently has a contract with Universal Pictures.

Background

Marshall was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of composer Jack Marshall. He's worked on many of Hollywood's biggest films since 1973.In 1981, with his wife Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg, he co-founded Amblin Entertainment, one of the industry's most productive and profitable production companies. Marshall's first producer credit was on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) which marked his first collaborations with George Lucas, Spielberg and Kennedy. He went on to executive produce the sequels "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984) and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989) with Lucas. Marshall also served as executive producer with Kennedy and Spielberg on the "Back to the Future" series (1985, 1989, and 1990). He's also collaborated with Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante and Martin Scorsese, among others.

Marshall has also directed a number of large-scale entertainment features, beginning with the comedy-thriller "Arachnophobia" (1990), about poisonous spiders on the loose in suburbia. He had previously served as 2nd unit director on such features as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), Back to the Future, "Always" (1989) and the second and third Indiana Jones films. Marshall has also directed TV commercials for McDonald's and Diet Coke featuring Roger Rabbit as well as the live-action sequences of two "Maroon Cartoon" shorts, "Tummy Trouble" (1989) and "Roller Coaster Rabbit" (1990).

Marshall entered the business as a protege of Peter Bogdanovich whom he met at a birthday party for the daughter of director John Ford, a family friend. He invited Marshall, then an undergrad at UCLA, to work on his feature directorial debut, "Targets" (1968). Marshall received his introduction to film production working at various tasks including building and decorating sets, making sandwiches and even appearing in a bit part. After traveling through Europe post-graduation, he returned stateside to Wichita Falls, Texas as location manager on Bogdanovich's signature film, "The Last Picture Show" (1971). He would work on five more of the writer-director's films in as many years, first as a location manager and subsequently as an associate producer. Marshall went on to become a line producer on projects directed by Orson Welles (the abortive "The Other Side of the Wind"), Scorsese (the 1978 rock documentary "The Last Waltz") and Walter Hill ("The Driver" 1978). He also executive produced Hill's "The Warriors" (1979) before teaming up with Spielberg & Co.

Marshall has also worked in TV, primarily as an executive producer of numerous "Making of..." specials about his Spielberg projects. He served as production executive on the animated spin-off series, "Back to the Future" (CBS, 1991) and "Fieval's American Tails" (CBS, 1992) as well the short-lived Spielberg/Tim Burton cartoon collaboration, "Family Dog" (CBS, 1993). Marshall made his TV directing debut on "Johnny Bago" (CBS, 1993), a wonderfully wacky spoof of "The Fugitive" and the like, which he executive produced with Robert Zemeckis.

Marshall departed Amblin in 1991 and formed The Kennedy/Marshall Company with his wife the following year. He embarked upon his second directorial outing, "Alive" (1993), a joint production of Paramount Pictures and Touchstone Pictures about a South American rugby team forced to resort to extreme measures to survive after a spectacularly shot plane crash in the Andes.

While Kennedy remained active producing films for much of the rest of the 90s, Marshall took a four-year hiatus. In 1999, he and Kennedy collaborated on two underperforming literary adaptations, "A Map of the World" and "Snow Falling on Cedars".

Marshall and Kennedy were announced by Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki as the producers for the US version of Ghibli's next animated feature, "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea". [cite web |url=http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Latest_News#Ponyo_US_Release_Semi-Detailed|title="Ponyo" US Release Semi-Detailed|accessdate=2008-06-10|publisher=Nausicaa.net GhibliWiki|date=2008-06-05]

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0550881|name=Frank Marshall