World Wide Pictures (WWP) is a film distributor and

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

established as a subsidiary of the

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is a non-profit Christian outreach organization that promotes multimedia evangelism, conducts evangelistic crusades, and engages in disaster response. The BGEA operates the Billy Graham Trainin ...

(BGEA) in 1951. It is involved in the production and distribution of

evangelistic In Christianity, evangelism (or witnessing) is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are ...

films, the production of Graham crusade films, and publicity for Graham crusades. WWP was establisahed after Graham met Dick Ross, who had produced a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

of Graham's 1950 crusade in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

. That film's success led the BGEA to buy Ross's production company and hire him as the president of a new BGEA subsidiary incorporated as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Film Ministry (which was to be WWP's official name until 1980). WWP's first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

was '' Mr. Texas'', produced during Graham's 1951

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

Crusade. It was also during the 1950s that WWP established production facilities in Burbank, California. Perhaps WWP's best-known production was the 1965 film ''The Restless Ones'', featuring

Kim Darby Kim Darby (born Deborah Zerby; July 8, 1947) is an American actress best known for her role as Mattie Ross in the film '' True Grit'' (1969). Early life and film career Darby was born Deborah Zerby in Los Angeles, the daughter of professional d ...

. It was the first theatrical movie. According to an October 14, 1966, issue of '' Christianity Today'' more than 120,000 professions of faith were recorded after more than two million people viewed the film. Other feature films included '' Two a Penny'' (also 1965), which starred

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

. Both '' The Hiding Place'' (1975, with

Julie Harris Julia Ann Harris (December 2, 1925August 24, 2013) was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary stage work, she received five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play. Harris debuted on Broadway in 1945, against the wish ...

) and ''Time to Run'' (1973) received Golden Globe nominations for Most Promising Newcomer. WWP stopped national releases of its films in the late 1980s. The company sold its Burbank studio, moved its headquarters to Minneapolis, and switched to working with independent producers and distributing films to churches, on home video, and as made-for-TV movies. They cautiously returned to feature films in 2001 with the limited national release of ''Road to Redemption'', WWP's first comedy after over 125 films. The film starred Pat Hingle. It was followed by '' The Climb'', which starred

Jason Winston George Jason Winston George (born February 9, 1972) is an American actor and model. He is best known for his roles as Michael Bourne on the NBC daytime soap opera ''Sunset Beach'', as J.T. Hunter on the UPN television sitcom ''Eve'', as Dr. Otis Cole ...

Ned Vaughn Ned Vaughn (born November 20, 1964) is an American film and television actor who served as vice president of the Screen Actors Guild prior to becoming the founding executive vice president of SAG-AFTRA. He resigned that position on 21 August 201 ...

, and

Dabney Coleman Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor. Coleman's best known films include ''9 to 5'' (1980), '' On Golden Pond'' (1981), ''Tootsie'' (1982), '' WarGames'' (1983), '' Cloak & Dagger'' (1984), ''The Beverly Hillbillies ...

, and featured

Todd Bridges Todd Anthony Bridges (born May 27, 1965) is an American actor. He portrayed Willis Jackson on the sitcom ''Diff'rent Strokes'' and had a recurring role as Monk on the sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris.'' Bridges worked as a commentator on the telev ...

. In 2003, the company released ''Last Flight Out''.

References

External links

World Wide Pictures
from Billy Graham's website, including
list of films
*

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

entries:
List of films as distributor
- wrong company
List of films as production company
{{Billy Graham Film distributors of the United States Film production companies of the United States Evangelical parachurch organizations Companies based in Minneapolis Christian film production companies Billy Graham

See also

References

Further reading

External links