Norman Jewison, Giant of the Film Industry, Has Died at 97

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | January 24, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | January 24, 2024 |

Director Norman Jewison passed away earlier this week in Los Angeles. He was 97.

Jewison directed 1971’s Best Picture nominee Fiddler on the Roof, a popular film among the Jewish community, including my children, who began watching it at around age seven or eight. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to keep a seven-year-old invested in a three-hour musical? That is how good Norman Jewison was, and not only did he direct the most popular Jewish musical of all time but also the most popular Christian musical, Jesus Christ Superstar).

I also only found out after he died that Norman Jewison was not Jewish. Here’s something else I didn’t know, which comes from a reader, Christina:

He was a pioneer, a mentor to Canadian filmmakers, and an activist. As someone who was mislabeled as Jewish due to his name (Jewison - son of Jew), he was ostracized in Toronto society in his youth and, despite not being Jewish, embraced the Jewish community and became a loud voice for that community in his world, receiving praise from Golda Meir for his dignified portrayal of traditional Jewish community in Fiddler on the Roof.

Jewison also directed a number of films with which most are familiar, even if they didn’t know that Jewison directed them: In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Rollerball (1975), … And Justice for All (1979), Moonstruck (1987), and The Hurrican (1999). That Jewison didn’t make himself the face of his films may be why he has seven Best Director Oscar nominations and, somehow, no wins.

Jewison also directed the best actor of his generation, Denzel Washington, twice in both The Hurricane and ?Toy Soldier. Of Jewison, Denzel said it best: “Norman Jewison is a giant. He’s a man who has always been ahead of his time. He’s made films that have challenged audiences, that have made people think, that have made people uncomfortable. And that’s what great art does.”

The director, who studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, founded the Canadian Film Centre. He spent many of his later years living on a farm in Ontario.

“Farewell sweet prince,” his Moonstruck star, Cher, wrote on Twitter. “Thank you for one of the greatest, happiest, most fun experiences of my life. Without you, I would not have my beautiful golden man (Academy Award). Norman, you made Moonstruck the great film people. Script, actors, etc, needed you dear.”

(Hat Tip: Christina)