Biography
Christopher Toyne is a producer, multi-cam director and associate director with wide experience in many disciplines of media production. He has just completed producing the independent feature White Air (2007) with Riley Smith Dominique Swain and Tom Sizemore.
Throughout 2005 he returned to his love of music programming, as supervising producer in New York of The Roots Present (2005) for 'Geffen Records [us]'/'MTV Networks [us]', plus Look Up Sing Out... Power (2005) and Nothing Without You (2005) for EMI Gospel [us] and all shot in High Definition (HD). As Head of Production for Sunrise Entertainment Inc, Nashville, he produced 4 record-breaking HD concert specials: The John Entwistle Band: Live (2004); Fabulous Thunderbirds: Invitation Only (2003), the first HD live streaming Web-cast in wide-screen; "The Moffatts: Wild At Heart" (1999), the first multi-camera HD production in all of Canada and Living Legends of Rock & Roll: Live from Itchycoo Park (2000), with over 30 acts, the most extensive library of Heritage Bands in HD. This material has been recently issued in a series of 8 DVDs by Passport International/ Koch Vision under the "Rock 'n' Roll Greats" banner. See Rock 'n' Roll Greats: Firefall (2004).
Recently Christopher was line producer on the ill-fated Domestic Goddess (2003) with Roseanne Barr, for ABC Network and ABC Family. In 2002 Christopher returned to his love of the globe-trotting documentary style as US coordinating producer of "The Mysteries Of The Parthenon" (2002) for the BBC/Discovery Channels and as coordinating producer of _"Kings Valley Tomb 17: The Secret Treasure Of Pharaoh Seti I" (2002)_ for NBC / ZDF, the first material to be shot in HD in Egypt's Upper Nile region of Thebes.
Christopher produced Diana: A Tribute to the People's Princess (1998) with additional credited line-producer, acting and UPM duties. A 2-hour dramatic TV movie depicting the last year in the life of the iconic Princess, it was shot entirely on the versatile island of Mallorca, Spain, depicting 10 countries and 52 locales. Starring Amy Seccombe, Anthony Valentine and Lisa Eichhorn, it premiered in the USA on August 29, 1999 on the 2nd anniversary of her tragic death on 'TNT [us]' and replayed many times since. It has been screened in every major International market.
He acted as Supervising Executive Producer and 2nd unit director on the high profile PBS pledge special George Winston: Seasons in Concert (1996), also featuring legend Chet Atkins. Shot in Maui, Montana and Tennessee, it is still available on DVD.
Other Multi-camera producer and/or director credits include "98 Degrees-And Rising"; "Barnum's KaleidOscape"; "The 25th International Monte Carlo Circus Festival"; First International Circus Arts Festival in Budapest (2000); "Fleetwood Mac - Live at the MGM Grand Garden"; "The Magic World Of Beto Carrero" (Brazil); "The USA Petite Model Show: Live from Caesar's"; Engelbert Humperdinck: Blazing a Silver Trail (1993); "The Great American Screen Test" and "Royal Polo From Windsor Park."
Moving to Los Angeles in the mid-eighties, Christopher Toyne was senior associate producer on the CBS series Beauty and the Beast (1987), starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman; Showtime's Nightmare Classics (1989), with Laura Dern, Amy Irving and Meg Tilly; plus Turner Network Television's Dinner at Eight (1989) with Lauren Bacall. He was sole-credited producer on PBS/Wonderworks' Frogs! (1992) with Shelley Duvall Elliott Gould and Robin Tunney.
Prior to settling in the US, film archival work with the Royal Navy led to a series of world-trotting documentaries. He produced filmed expeditions for 3 years across the Saudi Peninsular, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Central Africa; a global circumnavigation feature with the RN on "Task Group Three" (1976); special assignments with the US Navy; tours with the British Royal Family and documentary views of Hong Kong's Vietnamese Boat People crisis. This period culminated with a Royal Premiere of "The Great Event" (1977), an ambitious BBC documentary on the Badminton Horse Trials; "Operation Valiant Heritage" (1997) for the Queen's Jubilee and the feature "Out Of China - 'Cross The Bay" (1979), a Sino-British co-venture shot in Hong Kong and the Yanksee delta.
Christopher's first full Producer credit was for "Prisoners Of Conscience: The Russian Connection", A harsh, dramatized look at the plight of the Jewish 'refusniks' in the Soviet Union for WNET-NY. He trained at the BBC in both dramatic and multi-camera techniques and he worked his way up the production ladder as a 'freelancer.' He was an established 1st Assistant Director, 2nd Unit Director and UPM on numerous feature films, including Canon's The Godsend (1980); BBC's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1976); EMI's Not Now Darling (1973); Thames' Roberts Robots (1973); NBC's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973) with Kirk Douglas; Universal's Applause (1973) with Lauren Bacall: Thames' Napoleon and Love (1974) with Ian Holm & The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1971); CFF's The Johnstown Monster (1971), plus many commercials, documentaries VNRs, EPKs and corporate communications.
Christopher is a naturalized US citizen and married to Esther Ewert, an industry executive. He lives on the West Coast and also has a home in the Spanish Mediterranean Balearic Islands, allowing him to hold a European Economic Union work permit. He acts for the Spanish studio complex 'Palma Pictures [es]' in the USA.
Christopher represents the fourth generation of an established English "showbiz" family. His father was the respected actor-manager and dueling expert Gabriel Toyne; his mother the leading actress-comedienne Diana Beaumont; his grandfather the 'rebel' Fleet Street editor-in-chief Comyns Beaumont and his great-uncle the theatre impresario-actor Sir Gerald du Maurier, father of the renowned author Daphne Du Maurier and son of the Victorian author/playwright/illustrator George L. Du Maurier. Gerald's sister, Sylvia, and her four children, were befriended by Sir J.M. Barrie and depicted in the film Finding Neverland (2004) - showing the creation of Peter Pan.
