Laurence Mark
About
Biography
Biography
Laurence Mark has worked in a variety of fields in the movie business, beginning in publicity, working his way up to the executive suite and eventually heading his own production company. Mark entered showbiz as a trainee at United Artists and eventually became a publicist. He later joined the marketing department at Paramount Pictures, rising to the position of executive director of publicity for the motion picture division in NYC. After several promotions, Mark became vice president of production, overseeing such features as the James L Brooks' Oscar-winning "Terms of Endearment" and the Eddie Murphy hit "Trading Places" (both 1983). He subsequently joined 20th Century Fox as executive vice president of production. Among the features under his watch were David Croenenberg's remake of "The Fly" (1986) and Brooks' Oscar-nominated "Broadcast News" (1987). In 1986, Mark formed Laurence Mark Productions, headquartered at Fox. He went on to produce or executive produce such features as the thriller "Black Widow" (1987) and Mike Nichols' comedy "Working Girl" (1988). Mark moved his company to Walt Disney Studios in 1989 where he had less success with "True Colors" (1991) and the disastrous "Cutthroat Island" (1995). He did score somewhat with the Whoopi Goldberg vehicle "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit" (1993) but it took Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe's "Jerry Maguire" (1996) to give him a bona fide box-office and critical hit. The film earned more than $100 million and won five Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. He shared that nomination with Crowe, James L Brooks and Richard Sakai. Mark reteamed with the latter two the following year for Brooks' highly anticipated "As Good As It Gets," which featured Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear. In 1998, he finally saw the realization of a long-nurtured project, the screen adaptation of Stephen McCauley's novel "The Object of My Affection."
Filmography
Producer (Feature Film)
Producer (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1980
Promoted to vice-president, West Coast marketing, at Paramount
1982
Promoted to vice-president, production at Paramount
1984
Joined 20th Century-Fox as executive vice-president, production
1986
Established Laurence Mark Productions at Fox
1987
Produced first feature, "Black Widow"
1989
Moved Laurence Mark Productions to Walt Disney Studios
1989
Produced first TV movie, "Sweet Bird of Youth"
1996
Broadway producing debut, "Big"
1996
Earned an Oscar Nomination for "Jerry Maguire"; co-produced with James L Brooks, Richard Sakai and Cameron Crowe
1997
Executive produced the Oscar-nominated "As Good As It Gets," directed by Brooks
1998
In April, signed a three-year film and television production deal with Columbia Pictures
1998
Produced "The Object of My Affection"
2000
Produced the Gus Van Sant directed, "Finding Forrester"
2001
Produced "Riding in Cars with Boys," starring Drew Barrymore
2006
Produced the award winning feature, "Dreamgirls," adapted from the 1981 Broadway musical of the same name
2007
Produced the thriller, "The Lookout"; directed by Scott Frank
Videos
Movie Clip
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