Claudia Weill
Encyclopedia
Claudia Weill is an American film director best known for her film Girlfriends
(1978), starring Melanie Mayron
, Christopher Guest
, Bob Balaban
and Eli Wallach
, which she made independently, then sold to Warner Bros after multiple awards at Cannes, Filmex and Sundance. It's My Turn
(1980 for Columbia Pictures), with Jill Clayburgh
, Michael Douglas
, and Charles Grodin
won her the Donatello, or International Oscar for best new director.
Her earlier film work after graduating Harvard in 1969 was 30 films for Sesame Street, freelancing as a camerawoman and numerous documentaries- notably The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir
, a doc about the first delegation to China after Nixon in 1973, a cross section of US women headed by Shirley Maclaine, nominated for an Academy Award and released theatrically and on PBS.
After moving to LA to start a family in 1986, Weill began directing Thirty Something, My So-Called Life
, Once and Again
, Chicago Hope
, and numerous pilots, cable movies, Johnny Bull with Jason Robards, Kathy Bates
, and Colleen Dewhurst, and Face of a Stranger written by Marsha Norman with Tyne Daly
and Gena Rowlands
.
Originally a theatre director of mostly new work at Williamstown, The O’Neill, Sundance, ACT, Empty Space and in New York at MTC, the Public, and Circle Rep, she won the Drama Desk’s Best Director Award for the premiere of Donald Margulies’ Found a Peanut produced by Joe Papp at the Public Theatre in 1984. More recently she directed the West Coast Premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner, Doubt (Linda Hunt) at the Pasadena Playhouse, Memory House, End Days and "Tape" and numerous workshops - Modern Orthodox, Adam Baum and the Jew Movie by Daniel Goldfarb, and The Parents' Evening by Bash Doran at the Vineyard Playhouse, Huck and Holden by Rajiv Joseph at the Black Dahlia, La Bella Famiglia at ACT SF, Act a Lady and Sweet Mercy at Antaeus, and many others.
Claudia has guest taught directing for film, television and/or theatre at Harvard, Columbia, NYU and Juilliard, Cal Arts and is currently a Professor at USC in the School of Cinema. She mentors playwrights and directors and is researching a documentary about the art and craft of directing.
She was the 3rd woman admitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1981, (after Dorothy Arzner and ida Lupino).
Weill's distant cousin was the composer Kurt Weill
, famous for such works as The Threepenny Opera
, which contained the popular song "Mack the Knife
".
Girlfriends
Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008...
(1978), starring Melanie Mayron
Melanie Mayron
Melanie Joy Mayron is an American actress and director of film and television. Mayron is best known for portraying the role of photographer Melissa Steadman on the ABC drama Thirtysomething.-Biography:...
, Christopher Guest
Christopher Guest
Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...
, Bob Balaban
Bob Balaban
Robert Elmer "Bob" Balaban is an American actor, author and director.-Personal life:Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television...
and Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
, which she made independently, then sold to Warner Bros after multiple awards at Cannes, Filmex and Sundance. It's My Turn
It's My Turn (film)
It's My Turn is a 1980 romantic comedy-drama film starring Jill Clayburgh, Michael Douglas, and Charles Grodin.The film was directed by Claudia Weill and written by Eleanor Bergstein...
(1980 for Columbia Pictures), with Jill Clayburgh
Jill Clayburgh
Jill Clayburgh was an American actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles in An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over.-Personal life:...
, Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
, and Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...
won her the Donatello, or International Oscar for best new director.
Her earlier film work after graduating Harvard in 1969 was 30 films for Sesame Street, freelancing as a camerawoman and numerous documentaries- notably The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir
The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir
The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir is a 1975 documentary film directed by Shirley MacLaine and Claudia Weill. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-External links:*...
, a doc about the first delegation to China after Nixon in 1973, a cross section of US women headed by Shirley Maclaine, nominated for an Academy Award and released theatrically and on PBS.
After moving to LA to start a family in 1986, Weill began directing Thirty Something, My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life is an American teen drama television series created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. It originally aired on ABC from August 25, 1994, to January 26, 1995 and was distributed by The Bedford Falls Company with ABC Productions. Set at the...
, Once and Again
Once and Again
Once and Again is an American television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999 to April 15, 2002. It depicts the family of a single mother and her romance with a single father...
, Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...
, and numerous pilots, cable movies, Johnny Bull with Jason Robards, Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
, and Colleen Dewhurst, and Face of a Stranger written by Marsha Norman with Tyne Daly
Tyne Daly
Tyne Daly is an American stage and screen actress, widely known for her work as Detective Mary Beth Lacey in the television series Cagney & Lacey and as Maxine Gray in the television series Judging Amy. She is also known for her role as Alice Henderson in television series Christy...
and Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy...
.
Originally a theatre director of mostly new work at Williamstown, The O’Neill, Sundance, ACT, Empty Space and in New York at MTC, the Public, and Circle Rep, she won the Drama Desk’s Best Director Award for the premiere of Donald Margulies’ Found a Peanut produced by Joe Papp at the Public Theatre in 1984. More recently she directed the West Coast Premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner, Doubt (Linda Hunt) at the Pasadena Playhouse, Memory House, End Days and "Tape" and numerous workshops - Modern Orthodox, Adam Baum and the Jew Movie by Daniel Goldfarb, and The Parents' Evening by Bash Doran at the Vineyard Playhouse, Huck and Holden by Rajiv Joseph at the Black Dahlia, La Bella Famiglia at ACT SF, Act a Lady and Sweet Mercy at Antaeus, and many others.
Claudia has guest taught directing for film, television and/or theatre at Harvard, Columbia, NYU and Juilliard, Cal Arts and is currently a Professor at USC in the School of Cinema. She mentors playwrights and directors and is researching a documentary about the art and craft of directing.
She was the 3rd woman admitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1981, (after Dorothy Arzner and ida Lupino).
Weill's distant cousin was the composer Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
, famous for such works as The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
, which contained the popular song "Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
".