Biographie
David Lawrence has had a love affair with Europe since he produced his first television movie over a whirlwind 5-week schedule shooting in London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam. The project, a co-production of Lawrence's Castle Combe Productions and 20th Century Fox, was based on Gerald Green's novel "Tourist". The all-star cast, including Bonnie Bedelia, Bradford Dillman, Adrienne Barbeau and Marisa Berenson, was directed by Jeremy Sommers from a script by Norman Hudis and Lawrence. During the last dozen years, Lawrence has added a diverse and successful group of movies and miniseries to his European line-up. The most ambitious, a six-hour miniseries, was produced in association with entertainment entities all over the world -- Tribune Entertainment in the U.S., Raidue in Italy, Canal Plus in France and TaurusFilm of Germany. "Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair" starred Burt Lancaster, Eva Marie Saint and Robert Culp supported by a huge cast from nine countries. The miniseries was filmed at sea on board the actual ship, the Achille Lauro, following the route of her ill-fated voyage during which she was high jacked by terrorists who killed the American Klinghofer played by Lancaster. Other locations included sites throughout Israel and Italy. Following this year-long schedule, Lawrence produced several films in association with Titanus Produzione of Rome including "Vendetta" starring Carol Alt, Eric Roberts, Eli Wallach and Bert Young. The miniseries about the Mafia was aired in the States over the Tribune network and was successful enough to warrant a sequel with most of the original cast. In the period between these most recent efforts and "Tourist", David Lawrence was responsible for bringing to television the movie "Helen Keller: the Miracle Continues" starring Mare Winningham as Helen and Blythe Danner as her beloved teacher. Perry King co-starred as John Macy, the man loved by both extraordinary women. The script by John McGreevey was based on Joseph Lash's definitive biography and picked up the story some ten years after the end of "The Miracle Worker". Jack Warden, Vera Miles, and Peter Cushing co-starred in the film Lawrence produced near London in association with 20th Century Fox. In a remarkable change of pace, Lawrence next produced the World War Two spy thriller, "The Key to Rebecca", based on the best-selling novel by Ken Follett. The miniseries starred Cliff Robertson, David Soul, Season Hubley supported by Robert Culp, Anthony Quayle and David Hemmings who also directed. The Castle Combe Production was in association with Taft Entertainment and was filmed on locations throughout Tunisia. It reunited Lawrence with Hemmings who had directed a feature film, "Escape 2000" based on Lawrence's story. Once again proving his versatility, Lawrence produced a landmark movie for the ABC network in association with Martin Starger. Laura Z. Hobson's "Consenting Adult" was adapted by John McGreevey, directed by Gil Cates, and starred Marlo Thomas and Martin Sheen as parents whose liberal views are tested to the breaking point when their youngest son admits his homosexuality. Proving that in spite of his love of travel, David Lawrence believes there really is no place like home, he served as Executive Producer for the last year of the long-running Daytime Drama, "Search For Tomorrow" shot in New York. He followed this stint in Los Angeles by writing and producing the entertainment special, "Howdy Doody's 40th Birthday Celebration". This musical variety event re-united the original stars of the popular children's series and included clips from the early shows. Lawrence is no stranger to this form having served as Executive Producer, and often writer, of the 74 half-hour episodes of "That's Hollywood", a retrospective of the best moments of the best movies aired on ABC and produced in association with 20th Century Fox. Castle Combe and Fox also brought to CBS "M*A*S*H -- Our Finest Hour" and to NBC TV: The Fabulous 50's", both co-written and produced by David Lawrence. This is one Executive Producer who truly deserves the credit. He is intimately involved in every phase of production from concept, sales, script, through filming and post-production, even to the point of personally editing the commercials used in promoting the finished project. His respect for the value of the proper selling tools comes from Lawrence's background as a copywriter and account executive after graduating from Los Angeles City and State Colleges. His career in television began when Procter & Gamble asked him to join their production arm heading up their West Coast office. Lawrence spent ten years with P & G Productions working with television's top creative teams to develop pilots which the sponsor financed and placed on the networks. Once on the schedule, shows like "Dick Van Dyke", "Judy Garland", "Mary Tyler Moore", "Bill Cosby", "Gilligan's Island", and dozens of others became Lawrence's responsibility to supervise and publicize in conjunction with P & G's advertising agencies and public relations companies. When he left the sponsor, Lawrence entered independent production with two original book musicals, "Saga of Sonora" for NBC and "Old Faithful" for ABC with stars including Zero Mostel, Burgess Meredith, Leslie Ann Warren, Jill St. John, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. These were followed by "Alexander" for ABC starring Red Buttons and Jodie Foster and for his old company, Procter & Gamble, "The Fashion Awards" a star-studded musical special for ABC. Lawrence's work on the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of "Emily, Emily" starring Tom Hulce and John Forsythe led to his association with 20th Century Fox and the long list of credits that followed. During these years, David Lawrence served as President of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and produced for the Academy tributes to a long list of television stars including Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, and Milton Berle. Lawrence remains active with the Academy as a member of the Past Presidents Council. David Lawrence has finished his first novel, "Murder in Merry Old", which not surprisingly features as its central character an urbane, elegant and very rich travel authority who occasionally takes a dozen well-heeled tourists on a very special trip to exotic locales. Projected as a series of mystery novels, each dream vacation becomes a nightmare when Death becomes the 13th tourist.
