Norman Jewison

Norman Frederick Jewison was born in 1926 in the Beaches, the east-end Toronto neighbourhood where his father ran a general store. He made his stage debut at age six, studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and after service with the Royal Canadian Navy enrolled at Victoria College, University of Toronto, where he wrote and directed the first-ever All-Varsity Revue — an early sign of the directing career to come.

Three Best Picture contenders

Jewison began in television at the CBC in Toronto before moving to British and American broadcasting. He went on to direct three Best Picture Oscar contenders — In the Heat of the Night (1967, which won Best Picture), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Moonstruck (1987) — plus The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).

Building the Canadian Film Centre

His most lasting Toronto legacy may be institutional: in 1988 he founded the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto, a training institute for Canadian film, TV and digital-media talent, housed at the historic Windfields Estate. Jewison died in 2024 at age 97, but the Canadian Film Centre he built in Toronto remains active as one of his central legacies in the city.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Norman Jewison
• TIFF Canadian Film Encyclopedia — Norman Jewison