Lawrence Turman Biography

Fast Facts

• Chairman of the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California
• Served on the Board of the Producers' Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• UCLA liberal arts graduate
• After failed pitches for his TV script to a Paramount studio executive and an MGM producer, he became an agent after responding to an ad in "Variety," paving the way to becoming a producer four years later
• Quote: "I think it's a producer's job to understand how to work with a writer, learn what a writer needs, expects, is responsible for, rather than the other way round, especially as it's the producer who has chosen and hired the writer․"
• Prominent producer recognized for his work in 1967's "The Graduate," 1982's "The Thing," 1986's "Short Circuit," 1998's "American History X" and many other films
• Voted into the Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame