Lawrence Turman (November 28, 1926 – July 1, 2023) was an American film producer. He was best known for being a producer of ''

The Graduate ''The Graduate'' is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. It stars Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddoc ...

'', which was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film a ...

Early life

Turman was born in Los Angeles, California, on November 28, 1926, into a Jewish family. His father was Jacob Turman and his mother Esther Gldman Turman. Turman served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.Lawrence Turman, Oscar-nominated producer of ‘The Graduate,’ dies at 96
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. Retrieved August 22, 2023.

Career

Turman was nominated for the

as producer of ''

'' (1967). He also produced other films such as '' Pretty Poison'' (1968), '' The Great White Hope'' (1970), '' The Thing'' (1982), '' Mass Appeal'' (1984), ''

Short Circuit A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to short or s/c) is an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path with no or very low electrical impedance. This results in an excessive current flowing through the circuit ...

'' (1986), ''

The River Wild ''The River Wild'' is a 1994 American thriller film starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, and David Strathairn. It was directed by Curtis Hanson and written by Denis O'Neill. It follows a young family whose white-water rafting holiday is endange ...

'' (1994), and ''

American History X ''American History X'' is a 1998 American crime drama film directed by Tony Kaye (in his feature directorial debut) and written by David McKenna. The film stars Edward Norton and Edward Furlong as two brothers from Los Angeles who are invol ...

'' (1998). Turman also directed two films: ''

The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker ''The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker'' is a 1971 American romantic comedy-drama film produced and directed by Lawrence Turman (in his directorial debut) and written by Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on a novel of the same title by Charles Webb. ...

'' (1971) and '' Second Thoughts'' (1983). Turman was co-partner on The Turman/Foster Company with David Foster, which was established in 1972, to make theatrical films, which was increasingly prominent in television production, in order to eye on television movies, and planned work on series, and eyeing television sales, and the company ran under contract to

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, developing their failed television pilots, like ''Mass Appeal''. Turman was a member of the Producers Guild Hall of Fame. He was the director of

The Peter Stark Producing Program The USC School of Cinematic Arts is an academic unit of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. With a history that dates to the first years of talkies, the school descends from America's first program to confer a college degree in ...

at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. Turman published the book ''So You Want to be a Producer'' in 2005. In 2014, he appeared as a guest critic on the fourth season of the web series ''

On Cinema ''On Cinema'' (also called ''On Cinema at the Cinema'') is an American comedy web series and podcast starring Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington as amateur film critics. The duo appear as fictionalized versions of themselves. The show started ...

''. In 2015, he appeared as himself in ESPN's ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series und ...

'' documentary ''Trojan War''.

Death

Turman died at the

Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an observ ...

in Los Angeles on July 1, 2023, at the age of 96.

Filmography

He was producer for all films unless otherwise noted.

Film

;Miscellaneous crew ;As director

Television

;Miscellaneous crew

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Turman, Lawrence 1926 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Los Angeles Film directors from Los Angeles Film producers from California Military personnel from California USC Gould School of Law faculty United States Navy personnel of World War II