David O Russell Biography
David O Russell (David Owen Russell) is an American film director, producer, and screen writer. David’s early directing career includes the comedy films Spanking the Monkey (1994), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Three Kings (1999), and also I ♥ Huckabees (2004).
He is also an advocate for mental illness treatment and support, and also an active supporter of Autism research. His efforts saw him named the “Essential Puzzle Piece honoree” by the Light Up the Night Gala for Autism.
Three of his more recent films, – the biographical sports drama The Fighter (2010), the romantic comedy-drama Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and also the comedy-drama crime film American Hustle (2013) were commercially successful and also acclaimed by critics.
The films earned him three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, as well as a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Silver Linings Playbook and also a Best Original Screenplay nomination for American Hustle.
David O Russell Age
Russell was born on August 20, 1958 in New York City, New York, U.S. He is [agecalc birthdate=1958-08-20]
David O Russell Family
Russell was born to Maria (née Muzio) and Bernard (Markovski) Russell. His parents then worked for Simon & Schuster; his father being the vice president of sales for the company. Russell was from a Russian Jewish family and his mother was Italian American (of Lucanian descent).
His maternal grandparents were Frank Muzio, born in Craco, and Philomena Brancata, born in Ferrandina, both in the province of Matera. Russell’s paternal grandfather who was a butcher from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, lost many of his relatives in concentration camps.
He was raised in Larchmont, New York, in an atheist, middle-class household. Russell made his first film for a school project and used a Super 8 film camera to film people in New York City.
David O Russell Education
David attended Mamaroneck High School and there he was voted “Class Rebel”. He then fell in love with film in his teens (his favorite movies included Taxi Driver, Chinatown, and Shampoo) but then aspired to become a writer; he started a newspaper in high school and wrote short stories.
David’s parents worked for a publishing company hence growing up in a household filled with books and novels.
David received his A.B. degree from Amherst College, where he then majored in English and political science, in 1981. He also wrote his senior thesis on the United States intervention in Chile from 1963 to 1973.
David O Russell Wife
He got married to Janet Grillo. She was a producer at Fine Line Features, from 1992 to 2007. Since 2007, he has been with his partner Holly Davis who is a costume designer. David resides in Santa Monica with his family.
Russell has two children: one with Grillo and an adopted son with Davis.
David O Russell Career
After he graduated from Amherst, David traveled to Nicaragua and taught in a Sandinista literacy program. He then worked manual labor jobs, including waitering, bartending, and catering. Some of David’s bartending colleagues included members of the Blue Man Group.
He also worked for a booksellers’ association and then later became a community organizer in Maine. David used video equipment to document slums and bad housing conditions, which then later became a documentary of Lewiston, Maine.
He was a political activist and canvassed and also raised money in neighborhoods. David also did community work in Boston’s South End. This is in addition to working in several day jobs, he then began to write short films.
Director David O Russell
David directed a documentary about Panamanian immigrants in Boston, which then led to a job as a production assistant on a PBS series called Smithsonian World.
He wrote, produced, and also directed Bingo Inferno: A Parody on American Obsessions, a short film about an obsessive bingo-playing mother in 1987. Two years later, Russell made another short titled Hair way to the Stars, which then featured Bette Davis and William Hickey. Both the shorts were shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
David O Russell I ♥ Huckabees
His next project was the existential comedy I ♥ Huckabees.
David O Russell Lily Tomlin
He had conflicts with Lily Tomlin during its filming, and in March 2007, two videos were leaked onto YouTube portraying on-set arguments between the two, in which among other things he called her sexist names.
The abusive tirades by Russell were first reported in a 2004 The New York Times article by Sharon Waxman in which she then describes him calling Tomlin “…the crudest word imaginable, in front of the actors and crew.”
David O Russell Amy Adams
David had a project American Hustle (2013). Which is a comedy based on the ABSCAM scandal of the 1970s. The plot of the film revolved around skilled con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) being forced to work for unhinged FBI Agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper).
Then their complicated operation eventually involves Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) of Camden, New Jersey, as well as Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence).
It also reunited Russell with Bale and Adams after The Fighter, and also with Cooper, Lawrence, and De Niro after Silver Linings Playbook. Said Taghmaoui, the Iraqi captain from Three Kings, also makes an appearance.
According to Salon, in the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, it was revealed that David made “Amy Adams’ life a living hell” during the production of the film, and then Christian Bale intervened.
The film then received seven Golden Globe nominations, which include Best Motion Picture Comedy & Best Director for Russell, and also three wins including Best Motion Picture Comedy, Best Actress for Amy Adams and Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Lawrence.
Additionally, the film then received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, along with a Screen Actors Guild Award win for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
David O Russell New Film | David O Russell New Movie
Past Forward – 2016
David O Russell Net Worth
The film producer has an estimated net worth of $40 million.
David O Russell TV Shows
- Outer Space Astronauts – 2009
- Gossip Girl – 2011.
