In a career as celebrated as it is accomplished, IRWIN WINKLER's films have amassed 12 Academy Awards from 45 nominations including four Best Picture nominations — a remarkable record which stands alone in contemporary Hollywood. Winkler is also the only producer to have three of his films listed on the American Film Institute list of the "Top 100 Films" of all time.
Winkler received the Academy Award for Best Picture for the 1976 runaway hit Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone. He went on to receive Best Picture nominations for Raging Bull, The Right Stuff and GoodFellas.
Winkler made his directorial debut in 1989 with Guilty By Suspicion, a drama that he also wrote about the Hollywood Black List, starring Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, Patricia Wettig and Martin Scorsese. His second feature as director, Night and the City, based on Jules Dassin's '50s noir film, reunited him with De Niro (their seventh film together) and also starred Jessica Lange (Oscar nominated for her role in the Winkler-produced Music Box). The critically- acclaimed film was the closing night screening at the New York Film Festival in 1992. Winkler most recently directed and produced the suspense thriller The Net with Sandra Bullock and At First Sight with Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino.
Winkler began his producing career in 1967 with legendary director Norman Taurog at MGM with the Elvis Presley starrer Double Trouble and followed with the hit thriller Point Blank. He then won acclaim for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which garnered nine Academy Award nominations.
Winkler went on to produce some of the most distinguished films over the last three decades including New York, New York starring De Niro and Liza Minnelli, True Confessions, which teamed De Niro and Robert Duvall, Round Midnight, for which Herbie Hancock won an Oscar for Best Score, Betrayed starring Debra Winger, and Music Box with Jessica Lange.
Winkler has been the recipient of numerous international honors for his outstanding achievements. He was personally honored by the French government with their highest decoration for contribution to the arts, the Commandeur des Arts et Lettres. The British Film Institute saluted him in 1989 with a retrospective of his work and the Chicago Film Festival bestowed upon him their Lifetime Achievement Award. His alma mater, New York University, presented him with the school's Madden Memorial Award. His career and rich body of work have been honored by the Museum of Modern Art in 1990 and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1992. He also became the first producer to be honored with a retrospective of his films at the American Film Festival in Deauville.
A year 2000 salute came to Winkler when a star with his name was added to the famous Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard in front of what will be the future home of the Academy Awards ceremony.
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