Harvey Weinstein,
CBE (born March 19, 1952) is an
American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of
Miramax Films. He and his brother
Bob have been co-chairmen of
The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005. He has won an
Academy Award for producing
Shakespeare in Love, and has garnered seven
Tony Awards for producing a variety of winning plays and musicals including
The Producers,
Billy Elliot the Musical, and
Osage County.
Education and early career
Born in
Flushing, New York, Weinstein and his younger brother,
Bob, grew up in a Jewish family in
New York City, residing in a
housing co-op named
Electchester. He graduated from John Bowne High School, and then the
State University of New York at Buffalo.
Weinstein, along with his brother
Bob Weinstein, and Corky Burger independently produced rock concerts as Harvey & Corky Productions in Buffalo through most of the 1970s. Both Weinstein brothers had grown up with a passion for movies and they nurtured a desire to enter the film industry. In the late 1970s, using profits from their concert promotion business, the brothers created a small independent film distribution company called
Miramax, named after their parents - Miriam and Max. The company's first releases were primarily music-oriented concert films such as
Paul McCartney's
Rockshow. In the early 1980s...
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