Armondo Linus Acosta aka Armand Acosta and Armando Acosta (born September 23, 1938) is an American-born award-winning film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer and designer who in recent years is best known for his motion picture "Romeo.Juliet."

Personal and Professional Life

Acosta was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three children, to theatrical parents. Both his parents were popular musicians during the Big Band era. Kay Bratton, Acosta's mother, was a charismatic jazz singer, and his father, Alex Acosta, a drummer. During the first eleven years of Acosta's life, the road was home and he traveled around the country, wherever his parents performed.

At the age of eight, he began a precocious education in music, art and theater. Acosta later went on to study at the Tomlison Technical Institute, Ringling College of Art and Design in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the famed Art Center College of Design

Art Center College of Design

Art Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...

 in Los Angeles, California.

Blending his studies with prestigious assignments, Acosta rapidly became established as an international designer and motion picture visual consultant. He directed, created, designed and lit over 250 major international award-winning commercials for institutions, companies and organizations that demanded an individual "grand style." Assignments and clients included Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Chrysler, NASA, MGM, ABC, CBS, NBC, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Eastman Kodak, Chanel, Herman Miller, The New York World’s Fair, and Alka-Seltzer. His work is represented in the International Design Annuals and the Television Hall of Fame.

During this time, Acosta, as an 'A and R' and design consultant, designed numerous record album covers for producer Richard Bach, founder of Pacific Jazz Records

Pacific Jazz Records

Pacific Jazz Records was a Los Angeles-based record label best known for releasing cool jazz or West coast jazz. It was founded by Richard Bock and drummer Roy Harte in 1952....

 (also known then as World Pacific Records).,,,,

With a love for motion pictures, Acosta became a part of the 1960s Hollywood film world. From 1958 through 1963, he shared the distinction of being in the Roger Corman

Roger Corman

Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...

 stable of "maverick" up-and-coming young filmmakers. There, Acosta learned first-hand Roger Corman’s production genius. Acosta worked with Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...

 on Corman’s The Young Racers

The Young Racers

-DVD:The Young Racers was released in a Region 1 DVD on Sep 11 2007, as part of the box set The Roger Corman Collection....

(visual consultant) and Battle Beyond the Sun

Battle Beyond the Sun

Battle Beyond the Sun is a 1959 Soviet science fiction film directed by Mikhail Karyukov and Aleksandr Kozyr. It tells of the "space race", with the USSR forced into competing with the USA to become the first nation to colonize Mars. Roger Corman acquired the film for US distribution and hired a...

. Wearing many hats, Acosta also worked on other Corman film projects including The Haunted Palace

The Haunted Palace

The Haunted Palace is a 1963 horror film released by American International Pictures, starring Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr., and Debra Paget in a story about a village held in the grip of a cult. The film was directed by Roger Corman, and is usually listed as one in his series of eight films...

.

In 1962 Acosta was appointed Filmic Designer for the Emmy nominated, avant-garde television variety show “The Lively Ones.” The show, sponsored by Ford Motor Company, aired for two seasons on NBC and starred Vic Damone

Vic Damone

Vic Damone is an American singer and entertainer.- Early life :Damone was born Vito Rocco Farinola in Brooklyn, New York to French-Italian immigrants based in Bari, Italy—Rocco and Mamie Farinola. His father was an electrician; and his mother taught piano. His cousin was the actress and singer...

, directed by Barry Shear with music by Jerry Fielding

Jerry Fielding

Jerry Fielding was an American radio, record, film and television composer, conductor, and musical director.-Childhood and education:...

.

In the early 1960s, The Vatican commissioned Acosta to create, write and design a series of 15 short feature films illustrating the Psalms. The films were produced by Father Patrick Peyton

Patrick Peyton

Reverend Father Patrick Peyton, CSC was an Irish-born Roman Catholic priest, devout promoter of the works & inspirations of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is the founder of the post-World War II prayer movement called, "Family Rosary Crusade"...

’s Family Theater Productions. The collection of short films was screened at The Vatican Pavilion during the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Among these short films was The Soldier, featuring the then young William Shatner

William Shatner

William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...

, which won many important film festival prizes.

Based on his very first screenplay, Acosta was "picked up" and represented for over three decades by the great and considered by many, the most distinguished and influential show business agent, Dennis Selinger of ICM London. Selinger’s illustrious client list included Michael Caine

Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....

, Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers

Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

, Sir Ben Kingsley

Ben Kingsley

Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...

, Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

, Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

 and Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

. Acosta’s long-time legal representative was Lee Steiner of Loeb & Loeb.

A protégé of entrepreneurial icon Walter Blake, Acosta quickly moved into the world of cinema as consultant, writer and cinematographer-director. His elegant, chic, and "quiet" style brought him onto the sets of many 1960s films. He worked officially, and unofficially, with virtually every iconic Hollywood producer and director including: Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

, Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...

, Pandro Berman, Joseph E. Levine

Joseph E. Levine

Joseph E. Levine was an American film producer.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His Embassy Pictures Corporation was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as Hercules , The Carpetbaggers, Harlow, The Graduate, A Bridge Too Far and The Lion in Winter.Levine is famous...

, Vittorio De Sica

Vittorio de Sica

Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....

, Stanley Kramer

Stanley Kramer

Stanley Earl Kramer was an American film director and producer. Kramer was responsible for some of Hollywood's most famous "message" movies...

, David Lean

David Lean

Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...

, Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...

, Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Kiss Me Deadly , The Big Knife , What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte , The Flight of the Phoenix , The Dirty Dozen , and The Longest Yard .-Biography:Robert...

, Shirley Clarke

Shirley Clarke

Shirley Clarke was an American independent filmmaker.-Early life:Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, Shirley Clarke was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her...

, James B. Harris

James B. Harris

James B. Harris is a film screenwriter, producer and director. He worked with film director Stanley Kubrick as a producer on The Killing, Paths of Glory and Lolita...

 and Orson Welles

Orson Welles

George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

.

In 1988, Armondo Linus Acosta began working on an independent film project as director, writer, cinematographer and producer. The world-acclaimed Romeo.Juliet, Acosta’s first feature film, held its world premiere at the 1990 Venice Film Festival. Romeo.Juliet is an artful choreography of its feline actors (feral cats from around the world) featuring the score of Serge Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet Ballet" as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andre Previn. The film stars John Hurt

John Hurt

John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...

 (the only human character) and the award-winning voice-over cast of Dame Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...

, Robert Powell

Robert Powell

Robert Powell is an English television and film actor, probably most famous for his title role in Jesus of Nazareth and as the fictional secret agent Richard Hannay...

, Sir Ben Kingsley

Ben Kingsley

Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...

, Francesca Annis

Francesca Annis

Francesca Annis is an English actress, known for her film and television appearances, most recently in the BBC series Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and Deceit.-Early life and education:...

, Victor Spinetti

Victor Spinetti

Victor Spinetti is a Welsh comic actor.-Early life:Spinetti was born in Cwm, Ebbw Vale, Wales of Welsh and Italian heritage from a grandfather who was said to have walked from Italy to Wales to work as a coal miner...

 and Quentin Crisp

Quentin Crisp

Quentin Crisp , was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant.- Early life :...

.

Recent activities

Mr. Acosta is the director, mentor, and founder of The Academy of Film and The Arts, an international studio and film school based in Ghent, Belgium.

Acosta is working on several motion picture projects including Shooting Stars (in post production), The Legend of Laila and Majnun (musical), Stealing Angels (drama), Joy (musical drama) and The Last Supper According to Judas (in development).

On November 14, 2009, Acosta attended the Governor’s Award Ball honoring his mentor, Roger Corman.

Filmography (general)

Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil is a 1958 American crime thriller film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson...

(1958), Orson Welles, director

Two Women

Two Women

Two Women is a 1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi...

, or La Ciociara (1960), Vittorio De Sica, director

El Cid

El Cid

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as El Cid Campeador , was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat...

(1961), Anthony Mann, director

Judgment at Nuremberg

Judgment at Nuremberg

Judgment at Nuremberg is a 1961 American drama film dealing with the Holocaust and the Post-World War II Nuremberg Trials. It was written by Abby Mann, directed by Stanley Kramer, and starred Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy...

(1961), Stanley Kramer, director

Days of Wine and Roses (film)

Days of Wine and Roses (film)

Days of Wine and Roses is a film directed by Blake Edwards with a screenplay by JP Miller adapted from his own 1958 Playhouse 90 teleplay of the same name....

(1962), Blake Edwards, director

Experiment in Terror

Experiment in Terror

Experiment in Terror is a 1962 thriller film. It was directed by Blake Edwards and written by Mildred Gordon and Gordon Gordon based on their 1961 novel Operation Terror. The film stars Glenn Ford and Lee Remick.-Plot:...

(1962), Blake Edwards, director

Lawrence of Arabia (film)

Lawrence of Arabia (film)

Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...

(1962), David Lean, director

The Connection (1962), Shirley Clarke, director

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Robert Aldrich, director

War Hunt

War Hunt

War Hunt is a 1962 war film starring John Saxon, Charles Aidman, and Robert Redford. The film was directed by Denis Sanders, produced by his brother, Terry Sanders for T-D Enterprises, and released by United Artists....

(1962), Denis Sanders, director

The Soldier (1962), from the PSALMS

Wonder (1962), from the PSALMS

"The Lord is My Shepherd" (1962) from the PSALMS

"The Escape" (1962) from the PSALMS

The Young Racers (1963), Roger Corman, director

The Haunted Palace

The Haunted Palace

The Haunted Palace is a 1963 horror film released by American International Pictures, starring Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr., and Debra Paget in a story about a village held in the grip of a cult. The film was directed by Roger Corman, and is usually listed as one in his series of eight films...

(1963), Roger Corman, director

The Birds (film)

The Birds (film)

The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few...

(1963), Alfred Hitchcock, director

The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther is a series of comedy films featuring the bungling French police detective Jacques Clouseau that began in 1963 with the release of the film of the same name. The role was originated by, and is most closely associated with, Peter Sellers...

(1963), Blake Edwards, director

"It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" (1963) Stanley Kramer, director

Battle Beyond the Sun (1967), Roger Corman, director

Filmography (director)

Romeo.Juliet (1990)

Shooting Stars (post-production)

Joy (pre-production)

The Last Supper According to Judas (in development)

Television

"Follow the Sun

Follow the Sun

Follow the Sun is a 1951 biographical film of the life of golf legend Ben Hogan. It starred Glenn Ford as Hogan and Anne Baxter as his wife. Many golfers and sports figures of the day appeared in the movie.-Plot summary:...

" (1961–1962), series, USA

"The Lively Ones" (1962–63), series, USA

Printed Press coverage Romeo.Juliet (partial listing)

"The Wall Street Journal", March 10, 1993 'Kiss Me Cat' by Judy Gingold

"Women's Wear Daily", August 27, 1990 'What's New Pussycat?'

"Weekend Telegraph", October 6, 1990 (UK) 'Glamour pusses' by reporter Celia Haddon

Celia Haddon

Celia Haddon is a British journalist and author. Her 34 published books include a series of best-selling small books about cats, most successful of which is One Hundred Ways for a Cat to Train its Human . She wrote three romances under the pseudonym Caroline Courtney...

"La Repubblica", September 4, 1990 (Italy) 'Venezia Cinema' by Natalia Aspesi

"Quattrozampe", December 1990 (Italy) 'Attualita Romeo & Giulietta' by Claudia Ferronato

"Kolnische Rundschau", September 5, 1990 (Germany) 'Kater Romeo und Katze Julia' by Gert Berghoff

"Televisual", July 1990 (UK) 'Cats dance on from digital to 70mm film'

"IBC Daily News", September 23, 1990 (UK) 'Romiaow and Juliet - well mixed and matched'

Television press coverage information Romeo.Juliet (partial listing)

KLASTV (CBS) Las Vegas, "The Morning Show", June 20, 2000, interview with Acosta

NDTV (New Delhi, India), May 12, 1998, interview with Acosta

"The Joe Franklin Show", January 27, 1993, interview with Acosta

"Entertainment Tonight", January 22, 1993

E! NEWS DAILY, December 23, 1992, Romeo.Juliet Premiere (US)

KTLA NEWS Los Angeles, December 21, 1992 Channel 5, Romeo.Juliet premiere (US) at the Academy Theatre with Olivia Hussey, Cesar Romero, Anne Jeffries and Shirley Jones

KNBC NEWS Los Angeles, December 21, 1992 Channel 4, Romeo.Juliet Premiere (US)

"CBS This Morning", Charles Osgood on The Osgood File, March 11, 1991 (profile of the film)

BRT (Belgium) October 10 and September 19, 1990 (Ghent Film Festival)

BBC 4 (London), September 17, 1990 (Venice Film Festival)

Antenne 2 (France), September 12, 1990, reported by Henri Chapier

RAI (Italy), ORF Kulturjournal (Austria) and ZDF (Germany), September 6, 1990

Recent press coverage (other films)

Fox News interview with Director Acosta for Shooting Stars, Fox 5 News (San Diego) April 1, 2009

External links

• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010163/