Lawrence Turman

Turman was born in Los Angeles, California, on November 28, 1926, into a Jewish family.^[1] His father was Jacob Turman and his mother Esther Gldman Turman.^[2] Turman served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.^[3]

Turman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture as producer of The Graduate (1967).^[4][5] He also produced other films such as Pretty Poison (1968), The Great White Hope (1970), The Thing (1982),^[6] Mass Appeal (1984), Short Circuit (1986), The River Wild (1994), and American History X (1998).^[7]

Turman also directed two films: The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker (1971) and Second Thoughts (1983).^[7]

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., developing their failed television pilots, like Mass Appeal.^[8]

Turman was a member of the Producers Guild Hall of Fame.^[9] He was the director of The Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California.^[7]

Turman published the book So You Want to be a Producer in 2005.^[10]

In 2014, he appeared as himself on the fourth season of the web series On Cinema. In 2015, he appeared as himself in ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary Trojan War.^[11]

Turman died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles on July 1, 2023, at the age of 96.^[9]

He was producer for all films unless otherwise noted.