Theatrical Producer Norman Twain Has Died
(© photo provided by Jeffrey Richards Associates)
Film and theatrical producer Norman Twain died on Saturday, August 6, following a short illness. He was 85 years old.
Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Twain attended Columbia University. Beginning his career as producer of off-Broadway plays, including Tennessee Williams’ Garden District and Maxwell Anderson’s The Golden Six, Twain would make his debut on Broadway with 1959's Epitaph for George Dillon by John Osborne and Anthony Creighton.
His many Broadway productions would soon also include A Distant Bell (1960), which he also directed, The Lady of the Camellias (1963), Traveler Without Luggage (1964), Peterpat (1965), The World of Charles Aznavour (1965), The Apparition Theater of Prague (1966), and Cop-Out (1969). His musicals included Bajour (1964) which costarred Chita Rivera, Herschel Bernardi, and Nancy Dussault.
Moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s, Twain continued as a theatrical producer on the West Coast, with ten separate productions of Jack Heifner's Vanities, several of which co-starred Elizabeth Ashley and Lesley Ann Warren. His film career began with It's a Bird…It's a Plane…It's Superman! (1975), the television movie based on the Charles Strouse-Lee Adams musical. He would also serve as associate producer of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) and producer of Warner Bros.' Lean on Me (1989) (starring Morgan Freeman) for which he created the idea and developed the script with screenwriter Michael Schiffer. Twain subsequently created and developed the idea and served as executive producer of the HBO film Boycott (2001).
Twain's most recent projects included the horror film Scar (2007), Spinning Into Butter (2007) (starring Sarah Jessica Parker), and the animated feature My Dog Tulip (2009). At the time of his death, Twain was developing several film properties and was planning a return to Broadway with the play The Coastline of England.
Twain is survived by his wife, actress Deanna Deignan, as well as his daughter, Dena, his son-in-law, Timothy Sims, and his granddaughters Dylan and Isabelle.
