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Steven Eliot Tisch, son of former Postmaster General Robert Tisch, was born in Lakewood, New Jersey. While a student at Tufts University, Tisch took summer jobs booking films in his family's theater chain, working for director John Avildsen and serving an apprenticeship under director Otto Preminger. Upon graduation Peter Guber, then head of production at Columbia, signed him on as an executive assistant. Steve Tisch took care of Guber's directors' board (showing which films were in production or preparing to shoot), updating it every Friday morning. In 1975, Paramount head of production Richard Sylbert wanted to hire Steve Tisch, Loews hotel heir and nephew of Larry Tisch, former CEO of CBS. Steve turned down the job offer but recommended Don Simpson. After apologizing for Simpson's weak resume, Steve told Sylbert: "He's the brightest, most interesting guy I've met here, and he knows everything about Hollywood. You have to meet him." (High Concept, pg. 15) Tisch said: "Don has this bad-boy image that he's marketed. He's read a lot about old Hollywood. He'd like to immortalize himself and be talked about thirty or forty years from now as one of the great, colorful Hollywood legends." (High Concept, pg. 25) Tisch gave Simpson money to get a haircut and a sports coat. Tisch produced his first feature "Outlaw Blues" (1977) at age 28. In 1986 Steve formed his own production company, The Steve Tisch Company. Tisch specializes in comedy. Steve told the YaleDailyNews.com 3/3/95: "Movies that are made within the system encourage mediocrity. The root of that for the most part is a disrespect and a lack of intimacy and closeness with the audience. The majority of crap you see and we all see comes from that system. People are going to want to go see good movies. Studios are learning a very hard lesson -- regardless of how clever and misleading their advertising is, the audience knows when something smells and they don't show up to see it." After Simpson's death by drug overdose in 1996, Tisch cited Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Steve Tisch gives to such organizations as the Democratic Party, The H.E.L.P. Group (a Scientology entity), The ERAS Center and the DON’T QUIT! Foundation (whose mission is to support and educate America’s adolescents about the value of fitness and is scheduled to open a D.C. Fitness Center in October). He has also been the Board Chair of the Board of Directors of the AIDS Project Los Angeles, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the UCLA Medical Center, a Vanguard Award recipient from Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) - and he also has had foundations and schools created in his namesake including the Steve Tisch School of Arts at New York University as well as The Jamie and Steve Tisch Foundation. From the Washington Post, 3/14/99: " The creative lethargy can even be felt among some key Hollywood producers. Steve Tisch, who a year ago produced Costner's disastrous "The Postman," has lately turned to small, independent productions like "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels," which opened this week. "If you'd have told me three years ago that after producing a $100 million picture I'd be producing a $1.6 million that may outgross the $100 million, I'd say you were crazy," he says. "But you know what? I'm less interested in the typical, studio-financed $100 million film where I feel the audience will say, 'I've seen this before.' "" From Wired.com 11/16/99: "The idea to pitch Luci to production companies via email came from the screenwriting@onelist.com listserve, said [Pauline] Jones. "There are many wonderful writers who, because of the system, would otherwise never have a chance to pitch. But now, even top producers like Steve Tisch utilize the Web to find writers. The film industry is starting to realize that there is a world of untapped talent out there," said Margo Prescott, who moderates the list and is herself a successful screenwriter and consultant." FROM the LA TIMES, 5/10/02: From all appearances, the women nibbling bunny-shaped cookies and chatting about their children could have been gathered at a baby shower. But the table full of hand-knitted cotton sweaters and finely smocked dresses wasn't displaying newly bestowed gifts. These were samples of an exclusive European baby clothing line, Emma T., and the occasion was an invitation-only trunk show in the courtyard of Jamie Tisch's Better Things boutique in West Hollywood. In between their appointments with personal trainers, manicurists and decorators, the designer-labeled mothers with nary a sign of fatigue, fat or frizzies scooped up the $50 sweaters and $75 dresses. "You don't feel guilty shopping for your kids," said Tisch, wife of film producer Steve Tisch who sponsored the trunk show and was buying for their three toddlers. The A-list Hollywood insider and the other mother shoppers are like many parents who've had it with blah basics and can afford today's haute tot couture.Whether they buy a $450 itty-bitty Burberry trench coat, an $85 Banana Republic cashmere cardigan or a $2,000 hand-painted Silver Cross pram, today's pampering parents are going positively buggy for babies and kids. From Los Angeles Magazine, 10/93: There is a story that Steve Tisch, producer of the 1983 coming-of-age classic Risky Business, the film that would eventually vault Tom Cruise into the warm aerie of megastardom, likes to tell. After a tough day of shooting, Cruise approached Tisch, his partner Jon Avnet and the film's director, Paul Brickman. It seemed Cruise was concerned: He felt that his costar, Rebecca DeMornay, a newcomer who had snatched the part of sexy hooker Lana from Michelle Pfeiffer, was miscast. Things just weren't "working" between them. "We explained to Tom that, from our point of view, she was not going to be replaced and that she was doing a terrific job," says Tisch. "We told him that as production went on, they were going to have to play a number of scenes together and there had to be this illusion these two characters were falling in love." In other words, Tisch and Avnet told Cruise to find a way to make it work. The then 20-year-old actor, whom Tisch describes as the "most sincere and authentic guy I know," nodded seriously and marched out to give it his best shot. Two days later, he informed Tisch he would no longer be needing his location hotel room--he and DeMornay were now sharing a suite.
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