David Lawrence(VI)
- Producer
- Writer
David Lawrence has had a love affair with Europe since he produced his
first television movie over a whirlwind 5-week schedule shooting in
London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam. The project, a co-production of
Lawrence's Castle Combe Productions and 20th Century Fox, was based on
Gerald Green's novel "Tourist". The all-star cast, including Bonnie
Bedelia, Bradford Dillman, Adrienne Barbeau and Marisa Berenson, was
directed by Jeremy Sommers from a script by Norman Hudis and Lawrence.
During the last dozen years, Lawrence has added a diverse and
successful group of movies and miniseries to his European line-up. The
most ambitious, a six-hour miniseries, was produced in association with
entertainment entities all over the world -- Tribune Entertainment in
the U.S., Raidue in Italy, Canal Plus in France and TaurusFilm of
Germany. "Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair" starred Burt
Lancaster, Eva Marie Saint and Robert Culp supported by a huge cast
from nine countries. The miniseries was filmed at sea on board the
actual ship, the Achille Lauro, following the route of her ill-fated
voyage during which she was high jacked by terrorists who killed the
American Klinghofer played by Lancaster. Other locations included sites
throughout Israel and Italy. Following this year-long schedule,
Lawrence produced several films in association with Titanus Produzione
of Rome including "Vendetta" starring Carol Alt, Eric Roberts, Eli
Wallach and Bert Young. The miniseries about the Mafia was aired in the
States over the Tribune network and was successful enough to warrant a
sequel with most of the original cast. In the period between these most
recent efforts and "Tourist", David Lawrence was responsible for
bringing to television the movie "Helen Keller: the Miracle Continues"
starring Mare Winningham as Helen and Blythe Danner as her beloved
teacher. Perry King co-starred as John Macy, the man loved by both
extraordinary women. The script by John McGreevey was based on Joseph
Lash's definitive biography and picked up the story some ten years
after the end of "The Miracle Worker". Jack Warden, Vera Miles, and
Peter Cushing co-starred in the film Lawrence produced near London in
association with 20th Century Fox. In a remarkable change of pace,
Lawrence next produced the World War Two spy thriller, "The Key to
Rebecca", based on the best-selling novel by Ken Follett. The
miniseries starred Cliff Robertson, David Soul, Season Hubley supported
by Robert Culp, Anthony Quayle and David Hemmings who also directed.
The Castle Combe Production was in association with Taft Entertainment
and was filmed on locations throughout Tunisia. It reunited Lawrence
with Hemmings who had directed a feature film, "Escape 2000" based on
Lawrence's story. Once again proving his versatility, Lawrence produced
a landmark movie for the ABC network in association with Martin
Starger. Laura Z. Hobson's "Consenting Adult" was adapted by John
McGreevey, directed by Gil Cates, and starred Marlo Thomas and Martin
Sheen as parents whose liberal views are tested to the breaking point
when their youngest son admits his homosexuality. Proving that in spite
of his love of travel, David Lawrence believes there really is no place
like home, he served as Executive Producer for the last year of the
long-running Daytime Drama, "Search For Tomorrow" shot in New York. He
followed this stint in Los Angeles by writing and producing the
entertainment special, "Howdy Doody's 40th Birthday Celebration". This
musical variety event re-united the original stars of the popular
children's series and included clips from the early shows. Lawrence is
no stranger to this form having served as Executive Producer, and often
writer, of the 74 half-hour episodes of "That's Hollywood", a
retrospective of the best moments of the best movies aired on ABC and
produced in association with 20th Century Fox. Castle Combe and Fox
also brought to CBS "M*A*S*H -- Our Finest Hour" and to NBC TV: The
Fabulous 50's", both co-written and produced by David Lawrence. This is
one Executive Producer who truly deserves the credit. He is intimately
involved in every phase of production from concept, sales, script,
through filming and post-production, even to the point of personally
editing the commercials used in promoting the finished project. His
respect for the value of the proper selling tools comes from Lawrence's
background as a copywriter and account executive after graduating from
Los Angeles City and State Colleges. His career in television began
when Procter & Gamble asked him to join their production arm heading up
their West Coast office. Lawrence spent ten years with P & G
Productions working with television's top creative teams to develop
pilots which the sponsor financed and placed on the networks. Once on
the schedule, shows like "Dick Van Dyke", "Judy Garland", "Mary Tyler
Moore", "Bill Cosby", "Gilligan's Island", and dozens of others became
Lawrence's responsibility to supervise and publicize in conjunction
with P & G's advertising agencies and public relations companies. When
he left the sponsor, Lawrence entered independent production with two
original book musicals, "Saga of Sonora" for NBC and "Old Faithful" for
ABC with stars including Zero Mostel, Burgess Meredith, Leslie Ann
Warren, Jill St. John, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. These were followed
by "Alexander" for ABC starring Red Buttons and Jodie Foster and for
his old company, Procter & Gamble, "The Fashion Awards" a star-studded
musical special for ABC. Lawrence's work on the Hallmark Hall of Fame
presentation of "Emily, Emily" starring Tom Hulce and John Forsythe led
to his association with 20th Century Fox and the long list of credits
that followed. During these years, David Lawrence served as President
of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and produced for the
Academy tributes to a long list of television stars including Lucille
Ball, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, and Milton Berle. Lawrence
remains active with the Academy as a member of the Past Presidents
Council. David Lawrence has finished his first novel, "Murder in Merry
Old", which not surprisingly features as its central character an
urbane, elegant and very rich travel authority who occasionally takes a
dozen well-heeled tourists on a very special trip to exotic locales.
Projected as a series of mystery novels, each dream vacation becomes a
nightmare when Death becomes the 13th tourist.