Born and raised in the Beach, famed film director Norman Jewison remembered
Born and raised in the Beach, film director Norman Jewison died earlier this month at his home in California.
Jewison was born on July 21, 1926, and grew up in the Beach; attending Kew Beach Public School and then Malvern Collegiate before joining the Royal Canadian Navy in 1944.
Jewison died on Jan. 20 at the age of 97.
He lived above the dry goods store run by his parents Percy Joseph and Dorothy at the southwest corner of Queen Street East and Kippendavie Avenue.
After his service in the navy, Jewison attended the University of Toronto and graduated in 1949. After that he lived briefly in London, England before returning to Toronto and starting work with the CBC in Toronto. Working in television, he soon established himself as a writer, director and producer and moved from the CBC to NBC in New York in 1958.
From there he went on to directing films with his first movie being 40 Pounds of Trouble with Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh in 1962. That began a career which saw many of his films tackle pressing social issues of race relations and justice, and his movies were nominated for 46 Academy Awards and won 12. Jewison was presented the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1999 Academy Awards.
Among Jewison’s most notable films are In the Heat of the Night (1967); Fiddler on the Roof (1971); and Moonstruck (1987). For all three of those films, he was nominated as Best Director for an Academy Award; and In the Heat of the Night and Moonstruck won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Among Jewison’s other notable films, and there are many, are The Cincinnati Kid (1965); The Thomas Crown Affair (1968); Jesus Christ Superstar (1973); Rollerball (1975); And Justice for All (1979); A Soldier’s Story (1984); Agnes of God (1985); and The Hurricane (1999).
Though his career took him to Hollywood and far beyond, he always had strong connections to the Toronto area and the Beach.
Jewison’s married his wife Margaret Dixon, who grew up on Beaufort Road in the Beach, in July of 1953 and they had three children. (Please see Beach Metro Community News’ story by Bernie Fletcher on how Jewison and Dixon met at https://beachmetro.com/2014/12/02/beauty-beach-true-love-story/ )
Back in June of 1992, Beach historian Gene Domagala remembered the Norman Jewison Homecoming celebration held in the Beach. The June 7 event was presented by Community Centre 55 and featured a screening of the movie Moonstruck at the Fox Theatre on Queen Street East followed by a reception at the Balmy Beach Club to raise funds for the Beach Performing and Visual Arts Centre.
Beach historian Gene Domagala with his signed poster from the Norman Jewison Homecoming day event that was held in the Beach to honour the famed director on June 7, 1992. Jewsion was born and raised in the Beach.
The poster for the homecoming was a take on the poster for Jewison’s 1966 film The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and his movie The Thomas Crown Affair.
“I was hoping we would have been able to put up a plaque for Norman Jewison that day as well,” Domagala told Beach Metro Community News this week.
“The people in the Beach wanted to do it. I walked around with Norman Jewison most of that day,” remembered Domagala of the homecoming event. “We were there on Queen Street walking, it must have been for three hours. He told me how he went to Bellefair (United) church and the Beach theatre.”
Domagala said he is continuing to push for a plaque in honour of Jewison to be erected in the Beach, including a call in the summer of 2021 as Jewison’s 95th birthday approached. (See https://beachmetro.com/2021/07/06/beach-memories-the-time-is-now-to-honour-beacher-norman-jewison-with-a-plaque/ )
For more on Norman Jewison’s legacy, please see our upcoming print edition of Feb. 6 which will include an article by Reel Beach columnist Bernie Fletcher.
