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Danton Rissner was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 27, 1940 and attended Lafayette High School. He was a member of the Baseball and Basketball teams. He graduated in 1957 and attended Florida Southern College on scholarship, where he excelled in both baseball and basketball.
Mr. Rissner worked in the mailroom at William Morris Agency and was drafted into the United States Army where he was based in Fort Dix, New Jersey. After being released from the Army, he joined United Cerebral Palsy Associates and produced over 25 telethons from Ottumwa, Iowa to Phoenix, Arizona. In 1966 Mr. Rissner went to work for the Ashley Famous Agency and within a span of two years became Head of the Motion Picture Literary Department.
When the Ashley Famous Agency was sold, and Ted Ashley and Steve Ross took over the ownership of Warner Bros., Mr. Rissner went with Mr. Ashley and was named Vice President in Charge of European Production at Warner Bros. at age 29. He was based in London and under his leadership A Clockwork Orange (initiated by Ted Ashley), The Devils,Death in Venice and the Drama of Jealousy directed by Scola with Mastroianni and Gianini were produced.
Mr. Rissner left Warner Bros. in 1971 to join United Artist Corp. as Executive Vice President in Charge of European Production. He was based in England from 1971-1978 and was responsible for overseeing and initiating films such as: The Music Lovers, Scorpio, Man With The Golden Gun, Valentino, The Confession (French-Costa Gavras), The Night Porter (Calvani-Italian), The Story Of Adelle H (French-Truffaut). Norman Jewison's Rollerball, John Schlesinger's Yanks, and oversaw physical production of Last Tango In Paris (initiated by David Picker).
Dan returned to the U.S. in 1978 and continued to run the United Artist European operation from New York traveling back and forth to various European locations while also taking on responsibilities for production emanating on the East Coast. He initiated and supervised: 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 1, Farewell My Lovely,Tony Richardsons Dead Cert and was instrumental in re teaming Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers to start a new series of films starring Inspector Closeau which resulted in The Return of the Pink Panther and Revenge of the Pink Panther'
After a brief stay as head of world-wide production for United Artists (cut short by medical difficulties) For Your Eyes Only, Rocky3, Woody Allens 'A midnights Sex Comedy' and Gordon Willi's 'Window's' were made. Mr Rissner resigned for health reasons and joined Mr Ashley at Warners and produced Bob Downeys 'Up The Academy" with Ralph Machio.
In 1982 Mr Rissner joined Sherry Lansing at 20th Century Fox as Executive Vice President for Production , and intiated and supervised Ladyhawke (ajoint venture with Warners)Unfaithfully Yours,and Star Chamber.From 1982-1985 he returned to UNited Artists as Executive Vice President for Production under CEO Frank Yablans and was responsible for Michael Cimino's 'Year of the Dragon'2010 A Space Oddysey" and the James Bond Film 'Octopussy'.
Mr Rissner then produced two films for ITC,Backfire directed by Gil Cates starring Keith Carradine and Karen Allen.and Summer Story based on a Galsworthy novella starring James Wilby and Imogene Stubbs.In 1991 Mr Rissner co-produced with Sherry Lansing and Stanley Jaffe 'School Ties ' A story about anti semetism in a boarding school starring Ben Affleck,Matt Damon,Brendan Fraser and Chris O'Donnell.He has co-produced Gone Baby Gone with Ben Affleck and in 2009 Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson.He is presently in pre-production with Stanley Jaffe on a film tentatively entitled Monkey Kings.
