Biography
Bill's career in the entertainment industry has spanned over fifty years as an actor, writer, producer, director and production executive. He got his start as an actor in numerous plays, films and television series, including What This Country Needs, The Way of the World, George M, Johnny Got His Gun, Deathmaster, The End, The Hoax, Little House on the Prairie, The Young Rebels, Dan August, Family Ties, The Rookies, WKRP in Cincinnati and Korg 70,000 BC.
After completing his series run on Korg, Bill learned production management from Eugene Mazzola at EME Productions. He was trained in script breakdown, scheduling, and budgeting. In 1975, Bill became a production assistant for Dino De Laurentiis Productions on the first remake of King Kong. It was on this film he met Gary Martin, who hired Bill to write the screenplay Pale Images, which was being developed for 20th Century Fox.
Following King Kong, Bill worked as a production associate on the feature film Meteor starring Sean Connery and Natalie Wood for Sandy Howard Productions. In (1978), he met writer/director J.S. Cardone and together they developed and co-wrote the low budget horror/thriller The Slayer for The International Picture Show Company. Bill produced and J.S. Cardone directed the film. The Slayer led to a development deal with Tom Bosley's company, Bosley/Carr Productions at Paramount Pictures. After completing their writing assignments at the studio, including a television pilot for Norm Crosby and the feature film Rain Dancers, they independently developed the feature film Thunder Alley . Once again Ewing produced and Cardone directed the film which was financed and distributed by Cannon Films.
In June of (1986), David Puttnam was named Chairman of Columbia Pictures and Bill was asked to consult with the studio in the creation of a new division that would produce independent films under five million dollars. It was also during this time that he sold the television pilot Hot Line to Warner Brothers, co- written with Gary Grubbs. In November of (1986), Bill came on board full time with Columbia Pictures as Director of Production Services under President of Production Gary Martin and became Vice President of Production in (1988) under new studio head Dawn Steele.
He was promoted to Senior Vice President of Production Administration with Sony's acquisition of the studio. During Bill's 16 years at Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment he supervised the production of more than 100 feature films including Awakenings, A League of Their Own, My Girl, Groundhog Day, Age of Innocence, In the Line of Fire, Little Women, Fly Away Home, Air Force One, Men in Black I and II, Stuart Little I and II and The Patriot. His final production for the studio was the first Spiderman directed by Sam Raimi, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
After leaving the studio in (2002), Bill made his directorial debut on the Lifetime movie Christmas Child, based on a Max Lucado book. He then partnered with Mart Green as President of Every Tribe Entertainment where he served as Co-Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor and as Producer and Co-Writer of the feature film End of the Spear.
Bill is a partner in Pyramid Power Productions (December 1 2023), developing, writing and producing film projects including The Pyramid Principle, China Station and Who Moved The Stone. He also serves as Chairman of Mastermedia International, a voice of faith to top media leaders for over 30 years.
Bill and his wife Susie are the parents of actor/performer Blake McIver Ewing.
