Jack Blum

Jack Blum is a Canadian writer, producer, director, story editor, actor, educator and communications consultant based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With his longtime partner Sharon Corder, he has written and produced more than fifty hours of television drama for both Canadian and American broadcasters.

Jack Blum
Jack Blum at the 2016 CFC Annual Garden Party
NationalityCanada
Occupationwriter, producer, director, story editor, actor

His early acting career included the role of "Spaz" in the comedy hit Meatballs, as well as appearances in dozens of other feature films and television shows.

In the theatre, he directed productions across Canada (including several world premieres) and was associate artistic director at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. He has written many articles about the film industry for periodicals (Take one, Montague, POV), taught courses in screenwriting, and been an advocate for Canadian cinema and culture.

He has worked as a communications consultant for several prominent Canadian politicians. Since 1998 he has served as chair of the Credit Arbitration Committee of the Writers Guild of Canada.

Biography

Early life and education

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Blum grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, and trained as an actor at the National Theatre School of Canada.

Career

On graduating from NTS he appeared in many feature films and television shows, including most notably Meatballs. In the early Eighties, Blum began writing for television. In addition to episodes of the series Sons and Daughters and The Edison Twins, he co-wrote and was Associate Producer on the television movie Hockey Night, starring Megan Follows and Rick Moranis, for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the award-winning short drama The Umpire for the National Film Board of Canada. In 1985 he began working with co-writer Sharon Corder. Together they co-created the celebrated and long-running series Traders, as well as a host of other episodes of television drama. They were Story Editors on the syndicated series Catwalk, Co-Producers on Traders (Global), and Supervising Producers on Power Play (CTV).

In 1998 they wrote and produced a feature film, Babyface (directed and co-written by Blum, produced and co-written by Corder), which premiered at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes in 1998.[1]

In 2003, the team produced a short drama, DNA, with Corder scripting and Blum directing. The film stars Michael Riley as a grieving widower struggling to get over his loss.

In 2005, he and Corder founded Reel Canada, an educational program that introduces high school students and new Canadians to Canadian film. In 2014, the organization launched National Canadian Film Day, an annual one-day celebration of Canadian film that features more than 1000 screenings across Canada and around the world.[2]

Filmography

Movies
Year Title Role Notes
1976 East End Hustle Ernie
1979 Meatballs Spaz
1980 Hog Wild Gil Lasky
1981 Happy Birthday to Me Alfred Morris[3]
1983 The Funny Farm Peter Bowman
Self Defense Patrick
1989 Renegades Keith Weinstock
Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster Billy Ray
1994 Exotica Scalper
2008 Adoration Passenger & Professor On-Line

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1981 Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper Louis LeClerc TV Movie
Cagney & Lacey Hasid #2 1 Episode: Pilot
1983 Strawberry Shortcake: Housewarming Surprise Captain Cackle TV Movie
1985 The Littlest Hobo 1 Episode: Pandora
Shellgame Winton TV Movie
1987-89 Street Legal Roger Pitman / Collins 2 Episodes: A Little Knowledge, Slipping Through the Cracks
1989 The Twilight Zone Advisor 1 Episode: The Wall
Alfred Hitchcock Presents Mickey 1 Episode: Diamonds Aren't Forever
Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman Larry TV Movie
1991 Dracula: The Series Lawrence Lei / Alfred 1 Episode: Bats in the Attic
Sweating Bullets Coin Collector 1 Episode: Big Brother is Watching
1993 Gross Misconduct: The Life of Brian Spencer Leaf T.V. Director TV Movie
1994-95 Kung Fu: The Legend Continues Bernie / Louis 2 Episodes: May I Ride with You, Deadly Fashion
2003 Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper Story Harvey Pollock, QC TV Movie

For Kids’ Records, Blum also scripted and directed the children’s audio tape A Child's Look at - What it Means to be Jewish, and, with Corder, A Child's look at - Mozart.

Awards

The Umpire: First Prize at the Festival of the Humanities, San Francisco Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival, New York Hockey Night: C.F.T.A. Award, Best Feature Length Production ACTRA Award Nominee; Best Original Screenplay, ACTRA Award Nominee; Best Children's Program What it Means to be Jewish: Best Spoken Word Recording, National Independent American Distributors Award, San Francisco Getting out: Dora Mavor Moore Award for Artistic Excellence and Theatrical Innovation

gollark: With root access you can move apps to the SD card, which is not really ideal.
gollark: I have 32GB of internal storage on my smartphone™.
gollark: Some of them use 100MB or so, but it isn't THAT much.
gollark: I use internal storage for applications and external storage plus backups/replicated copies for data.
gollark: You can store DATA on them fine, but not really applications.

References
  1. Pratley, G. (2003) A Century of Canadian Cinema, Lynx Images ISBN 1-894073-21-5, pg 260
  2. "Happy National Canadian Film Day! Here's what you should be celebrating and worrying about this year". Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  3. "Jack Blum Filmography and Movies". Fandango. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.