Biografi
Danton Rissner was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 27, 1940, and attended Lafayette High School, where he played on the baseball and basketball teams. He graduated in 1957 and received a scholarship to Florida Southern College, excelling in both sports.
Rissner began his career working in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency before being drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After his military service, he joined United Cerebral Palsy Associates, producing over 25 telethons across cities from Ottumwa, Iowa, to Phoenix, Arizona. In 1966, he joined the Ashley Famous Agency and rose to Head of the Motion Picture Literary Department within two years.
When the Ashley Famous Agency was sold and Ted Ashley and Steve Ross took over Warner Bros., Rissner moved with Ashley and was appointed Vice President in Charge of European Production at Warner Bros. at age 29. Based in London, he oversaw productions including A Clockwork Orange, The Devils, Death in Venice, and Drama of Jealousy, directed by Scola and starring Mastroianni and Gianini.
In 1971, Rissner left Warner Bros. to become Executive Vice President in Charge of European Production at United Artists Corp. Stationed in England until 1978, he oversaw and initiated films such as The Music Lovers, Scorpio, Man With The Golden Gun, Valentino, The Confession (directed by Costa Gavras), The Night Porter (directed by Calvani), The Story of Adèle H (directed by Truffaut), Rollerball (Norman Jewison), Yanks (John Schlesinger), and managed the physical production of Last Tango in Paris.
Returning to the U.S. in 1978, Rissner continued managing United Artists' European operations from New York, frequently traveling to Europe and overseeing East Coast productions. He initiated and supervised titles including Semi-Tough, Equus, Missouri Breaks, Hair, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, Who'll Stop The Rain, Fellini's Roma, Costa Gavras' Special Section, La Cage Aux Folles, Farewell My Lovely, Tony Richardson's Dead Cert, and played a key role in reuniting Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers for The Return of the Pink Panther and Revenge of the Pink Panther.
After a brief tenure as head of worldwide production for United Artists, cut short due to health issues, during which For Your Eyes Only, Rocky III, Woody Allen's A Midnight Sex Comedy, and Gordon Willis' Windows were produced, Rissner resigned and rejoined Warner Bros. with Ted Ashley, producing Bob Downey's Up the Academy starring Ralph Macchio.
In 1982, Rissner became Executive Vice President for Production at 20th Century Fox under Sherry Lansing, initiating and supervising Ladyhawke (a joint venture with Warner Bros.), Unfaithfully Yours, and Star Chamber. From 1982 to 1985, he returned to United Artists as Executive Vice President for Production under CEO Frank Yablans, overseeing Michael Cimino's Year of the Dragon, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, and the James Bond film Octopussy.
Rissner later produced two films for ITC: Backfire, directed by Gil Cates and starring Keith Carradine and Karen Allen, and Summer Story, based on a Galsworthy novella featuring James Wilby and Imogen Stubbs. In 1991, he co-produced School Ties with Sherry Lansing and Stanley Jaffe, a film about anti-Semitism in a boarding school starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Brendan Fraser, and Chris O'Donnell. He has also co-produced Gone Baby Gone with Ben Affleck and, in 2009, Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson. Currently, he is in pre-production with Stanley Jaffe on a film tentatively titled Monkey Kings.
