Mike Gray
Mike Gray | |
---|---|
Born | Harold Michael Gray (1935-10-26)October 26, 1935 Racine, Wisconsin, U.S. |
Died | April 30, 2013(2013-04-30) (aged 77) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer |
Years active | 1969-1996 |
Harold Michael Gray (October 26, 1935 – April 30, 2013)[1] was an American writer, screenwriter, cinematographer, film producer and director.
Career
Film and TV
In 1965, Mike Gray and Jim Dennett co-founded The Film Group, a Chicago film production company. In 1968, the pair along with editor Howard Alk, produced the award-winning documentary American Revolution 2 (1969), followed by the trio's The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971). The Film Group was also behind the seven part educational series, "Urban Crisis and the New Militants", consisting primarily of footage shot during the production of American Revolution 2 but also includes footage of Chicago Black Panthers members (including future Congressman Bobby Rush) and a 1966 Civil Rights march in Cicero, Illinois. This series can be streamed on Chicago Film Archives' website and Chicago Film Archives's channel on YouTube.
After moving to California, Gray shot The Gift (1973), a documentary about the life and art of Marc Chagall then co-wrote, with T. S. Cook and James Bridges, the screenplay for the nuclear thriller The China Syndrome (1979), which film became notable for opening 12 days before the Three Mile Island accident (nuclear reactor meltdown). He also wrote and directed Wavelength (1983), an independent science fiction film starring Robert Carradine, Cherie Currie, and Keenan Wynn, with a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream.
Gray next co-created the television series Starman (1986–87). Following Starman, he became series writer/producer for the 1988–89 season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Gray was a second unit director on The Fugitive (1993) and acted as Swizlard in Chain Reaction (1996). Gray scripted The Zone and Forget About Yesterday in 2008, and was working with director Andy Davis and legendary filmmaker, Haskell Wexler on an as yet untitled documentary.[citation needed]
Bibliography
- The Warning (1982), about the accident at Three Mile Island[citation needed]
- Drug Crazy: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out (1998)[citation needed]
- Angle of Attack (1992), a biography of Harrison Storms which also details America's race to the moon[citation needed]
- The Death Game: The Luck of the Draw (2003)[citation needed]
- Busted (2004), a book about the USA's drug war[citation needed]
Personal life
Gray grew up in Indiana and graduated from Purdue University with a degree in engineering. He later lived in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Carol, a reporter for public radio. His son, Lucas, is a storyboard artist for The Simpsons.[citation needed]
Death
Gray died at his desk April 30, 2013.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "Mike Gray dies at 77; co-wrote 'China Syndrome' screenplay". Los Angeles Times. May 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-03.
External links
- Mike Gray at IMDb
- Mike Gray (official website)
- Drug Crazy (official website)
- Film Group Collection, 1966-1969
- v
- t
- e
(1969–1983)
- William Goldman (1969)
- Francis Ford Coppola & Edmund H. North (1970)
- Penelope Gilliatt (1971)
- Jeremy Larner (1972)
- Steve Shagan (1973)
- Robert Towne (1974)
- Frank Pierson (1975)
- Paddy Chayefsky (1976)
- Arthur Laurents (1977)
- Nancy Dowd, Robert C. Jones & Waldo Salt (1978)
- Mike Gray, T. S. Cook & James Bridges (1979)
- Bo Goldman (1980)
- Warren Beatty & Trevor Griffiths (1981)
- Melissa Mathison (1982)
- Horton Foote (1983)
(1969–1983)
- Paul Mazursky & Larry Tucker (1969)
- Neil Simon (1970)
- Paddy Chayefsky (1971)
- Peter Bogdanovich, Buck Henry, David Newman & Robert Benton (1972)
- Melvin Frank & Jack Rose (1973)
- Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor & Alan Uger (1974)
- Robert Towne & Warren Beatty (1975)
- Bill Lancaster (1976)
- Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman (1977)
- Larry Gelbart & Sheldon Keller (1978)
- Steve Tesich (1979)
- Nancy Meyers, Harvey Miller & Charles Shyer (1980)
- Steve Gordon (1981)
- Don McGuire, Larry Gelbart & Murray Schisgal (1982)
- Lawrence Kasdan & Barbara Benedek (1983)
(1984–present)
- Woody Allen (1984)
- William Kelley & Earl W. Wallace (1985)
- Woody Allen (1986)
- John Patrick Shanley (1987)
- Ron Shelton (1988)
- Woody Allen (1989)
- Barry Levinson (1990)
- Callie Khouri (1991)
- Neil Jordan (1992)
- Jane Campion (1993)
- Richard Curtis (1994)
- Randall Wallace (1995)
- Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (1996)
- James L. Brooks & Mark Andrus (1997)
- Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard (1998)
- Alan Ball (1999)
- Kenneth Lonergan (2000)
- Julian Fellowes (2001)
- Michael Moore (2002)
- Sofia Coppola (2003)
- Pierre Bismuth, Michel Gondry, & Charlie Kaufman (2004)
- Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco (2005)
- Michael Arndt (2006)
- Diablo Cody (2007)
- Dustin Lance Black (2008)
- Mark Boal (2009)
- Christopher Nolan (2010)
- Woody Allen (2011)
- Mark Boal (2012)
- Spike Jonze (2013)
- Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness (2014)
- Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer (2015)
- Barry Jenkins & Tarell Alvin McCraney (2016)
- Jordan Peele (2017)
- Bo Burnham (2018)
- Bong Joon-ho & Han Jin-won (2019)
- Emerald Fennell (2020)
- Adam McKay & David Sirota (2021)
- Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (2022)
- David Hemingson (2023)