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James Toback

  • Born: Nov 23, 1944 in New York City, New York
  • Occupation: Writer, Director, Actor
  • Active: '80s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Thriller
  • Career Highlights: Bugsy, Two Girls and a Guy, The Gambler
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Gambler (1974)

Biography

A stockbroker's son, James Toback holds degrees from both Harvard and Columbia. While an English instructor at CCNY, Toback began submitting articles to various publications, with special emphasis on sports magazines. Assigned to interview football star-turned-actor Jim Brown, Toback became close friends with his subject, spending several years as Brown's houseguest. Their relationship was crystallized into Toback's 1971 book Jim: The Author's Self-Centered Memoir of the Great Jim Brown. This work brought Toback to the attention of Hollywood producers, culminating in his first screenplay credit for 1974's The Gambler. In 1977, Toback turned director with Fingers, a succes d'estime starring-who else?--Jim Brown. Critical opinion was sharply divided over Toback's directorial bow: Pauline Kael was underwhelmed by the film, citing "self-promotion" as Toback's biggest talent, while David Thomson was so bowled over by Fingers that he wrote a essay-length love letter of a review. Since that time, James Toback has functioned as producer, director, and actor; he wrote himself a juicy part as Gus Greenbaum in his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Bugsy (1991), and essayed the small role of The Professor in Woody Allen's Alice (1990). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

 
 
Wikipedia: James Toback

James Toback (b. on November 23, 1944, in New York City) is an American screenwriter and film director.

After graduating from Harvard, Tobak intended to become a novelist but turned to journalism instead. Given an assignment for an article on football star Jim Brown, he instead wrote the 1971 book, Jim about the man. His first screenplay was the semi-autobiographical The Gambler (1974), drawing on his experiences as a college professor and a compulsive gambler. Much of the film was shot at the City College of New York, where he taught writing during the early 1970s.

Toback entered the realm of directing with the 1978 film, Fingers, for which he also wrote the screenplay. Viewers and critics of the 1980s were not kind to Toback's other films, including Love and Money (1982) and The Pick-up Artist (1987).

His comeback in the 1990s began with the documentary, The Big Bang, which he followed up with Bugsy (1991), Two Girls and a Guy (1997), Black and White (1999) and Harvard Man (2001). His latest film was When Will I Be Loved (2004), which starred Neve Campbell.

Toback is the subject of The Outsider, Nicholas Jarecki's 2006 feature-length documentary featuring Woody Allen, Robert Downey, Jr., Harvey Keitel, Brooke Shields, and Norman Mailer.

Toback married Consuelo Sarah Churchill Vanderbilt Russell, the granddaughter of the 10th Duke of Marlborough.

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Copyrights:

Writer. Copyright © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "James Toback".  Read more

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