David Winters is a famous tv personality. In his career he has 25 Award Nominations and winner 14 times: winner of The Peabody award, winner of the Christopher award, winner of the Paris Film Festival, winner of Mumbai Film Festival 2007, winner of the Golden Scroll Award, winner of the Bangkok Film Festival, winner of the Houston Film Festival, winner of the Charleston Film Festival, winner of the Sitges Film Festival, winner of the Star Entertainment Award, winner of 3 World Television Awards and he was nominated for 6 Emmy Awards. Some of the awards include the coveted Peabody Award, Christopher Award, three World Television Awards and six Emmy nominations, to name but a few.
It all began in London, England, where his parents were both wonderful dancers, his uncle was a theatrical s
tage star, his great grandfather was a cantor, and his grandparents were opera buffs. So obviously music was very much a part of his life.
They moved to the United States where he became a child singer, dancer, actor and appeared in 150 live television shows and 12 Broadway shows in New York City. Christopher Walken, Elliot Gould and David were all in the same tap dancing class when they were 13 years old.
David was then hired at 17 as the youngest member of the cast in the original Broadway show of "WEST SIDE STORY", and was also brought to Hollywood to play the part of A-Rab in the film version of "WEST SIDE STORY". That film went on to win 10 Academy Awards and established David as a teenage star in the USA.
At this time David teamed up with the now famous Paul Simon (Simon and Garfunkle) in a singing duo that went by the name of "David Winters and the West Siders". David and Paul wrote all of their own material, played all of the instruments on their recordings, and sang all of the voices too, with David singing lead. Their recordings can be purchased today on the internet.
Just after "West Side Story" he opened up a dancing school and taught Ann-Margret, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, etc. He became Elvis Presley's personal choreographer and at a very, very young age he choreographed four Elvis Presley films including "VIVA LAS VEGAS", five with Ann-Margret and the highly acclaimed "A STAR IS BORN" starring Barbra Streisand, as well as many other major studio films.
David also appeared as a guest star and choreographed the "Nancy Sinatra Special" with Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra and Dean Martin for which he received his first Emmy nomination for excellence in television.
He guest starred and choreographed "Grace Kelly's Monaco" with Princess Grace Kelly, choreographed the first Rock TV series "Shindig", and was choreographer/dancer/singer on NBC's TV Rock'n Roll series "Hullabaloo" where he created the dance craze "The Jerk".
After this he staged and directed the 2nd Unit on the film "The Island of Doctor Moreau" starring Burt Lancaster and Michael York.
Mr. Winters then set his sights on directing and producing. His first directing assignment was the 2 year Emmy winning TV series "THE MONKEES" where he actually created what is now referred to as music videos. He also created, staged and produced the very successful Monkees World tour. The opening act for the Monkees was another young man then unknown to the world, by the name of Jimmy Hendrix.
He has produced and directed over 80 features and over 200 television shows and TV movies that include: "ONCE UPON A WHEEL" starring Paul Newman, "DOCTOR JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE" starring Kirk Douglas, "RAQUEL" starring Raquel Welch, Bob Hope and John Wayne, "THE LONDON BRIDGE SPECIAL" starring, Tom Jones & Elliot Gould, "THE ANN-MARGRET SHOW" starring Ann-Margret, Lucille Ball, "ROLLING ON THE RIVER" starring Kenny Rogers, "TIMEX ALL-STAR SWING FESTIVAL" starring Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Goodman.
David then teamed up with Diana Ross and in 3 years Created, Produced, Directed and Choreographed two "DIANA ROSS WORLD TOURS" culminating with a command performance for President Ronald Reagan at New York City's Metropolitan Opera House, as well as two "DIANA ROSS" TV Specials.
After this he Created, Directed and Choreographed the Alice Cooper Rock and Roll Spectacular World Tour "WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE". The show's huge success inspired him to make a film of it, which he did, and released it in over 1,000 cinemas in the USA through his own Company.
David then Co-Starred, Directed, Produced, and Wrote the motion picture "FANATIC". For this film he won the Paris Film Festival Award, the Los Angeles Golden Scroll Awards, the Sitges Film Festival Award, and a nomination by the Hollywood Academy of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror as the Best Film of the year, but lost out to Mel Gibson's "The Road Warrior".
Following this, Mr. Winters partnered with Universal/MCA to produce the esoteric video programme, "YOGA MOVES", and with his good friend Hugh Hefner and Playboy Magazine for the CBS video "GIRLS OF ROCK AND ROLL" which become the long running Las Vegas stage production.
David then decided to place ALL of his energy into making independent motion pictures. He produced and directed "THRASHIN". A modern West Side Story on skateboards. He originally pleaded with the investors at 2 separate auditions to let him cast an unknown at the time, Johnny Depp, as the lead, but the investors would not accept Johnny Depp, telling David that "This kid will never make it".
So he found another unknown young actor Josh brolin, and cast him as the lead. Josh is the star of this year's current Academy Award Winning Film "No Country For Old Men" and stars as President Bush in Oliver Stone's next film "BUSH".
For the sound track of "THRASHIN", David introduced such unknown rock bands as Meatloaf, The Bangles, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and All The Fine Young Cannibals. They all went on to have No. 1 worldwide hits. The Red Hot Chili Peppers also appear in the film, in a live musical sequence. "THRASHIN" is the favorite cult film on DVD for skateboarders today.
Because of the Johnny Depp incident David decided not to make any more films that he did not totally control himself. In the next 8 years David Produced, Directed, Financed, and Distributed 49 films through his own companies, Action International Films and West Side Studios.
One of these "NIGHT TRAP" won the first prize "Gold Award" at the Houston World Fest International Film Festival. The film stars Robert Davi, Michael Ironside, and Margaret Avery, an Academy Award nominee for her performance in the Steven Spielberg film "The Color Purple".
"GOOD COP BAD COP" starring Pamela Anderson, David Keith, and Stacy Keach, won the Bronze award at The Charleston Film Festival.
"FIREHEAD" stars three time Academy Award nominee and winner Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer; "RAW NERVE" stars Glenn Ford, "CENTER OF THE WEB" stars Tony Curtis and "DOUBLE THREAT" stars Golden Globe Winner and Academy Award nominee Sally Kirkland.
"THE DANGEROUS" stars John Savage, Elliot Gould, Joel Grey, who are responsible for 3 Academy Award nominations and one winner.
David also created a USA theatrical division West Side Studios Releasing and played his own films in cinemas all over the country. He also opened A.I.P. Home Video, a domestic video distribution company and released 2 titles a month on video in the U.S.A. for 6 years.
In Romania he filmed the pilot for "Star School", a unique musical television series. "Star School" won the coveted first prize at the prestigious Montreaux Television Festival.
He then created and founded, and is a major stockholder of Handmade Films, an English film Production/Distribution Company that he listed on the U.K. Stock Exchange in 1999 as Equator Films.
Handmade films currently has 5 films in production with a total budget exceeding $150 million.
SONY, at Cannes, announced their pre buy for $30 million of Handmade's
"THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY", to be directed by Paul Anderson.
New Line Cinema just announced Handmade's $60 million "PLANET 51" written by Joe Stillman writer of "SHREK" and "SHREK II" and will release it in the USA in March, 2009 in 3,500 cinemas.
Handmade was created by George Harrison of The Beatles fame. The company boasts a Theatrical Star Studded library of over 100 films, that includes such award winners as "Time Bandits", "The Long Good Friday", "Runaway Train", "Mona Lisa" and such stars as Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Denzel Washington, Madonna, Jodie Foster, Micheal Caine, Sean Penn, Jodie Foster, Jon Voight, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Nolte, Peter O'Toole, David Carradine, Roger Moore, Michael Caine etc..
In 2002 David directed and produced "Welcome 2 Ibiza" a comedy adventure starring Gary Busey (Gary was nominated for the Academy Award for best actor for "The Buddy Holly Story") which won the Best Picture audience award at the Bangkok Film Festival.
He then produced an Epic Adventure film "THE KING MAKER" entirely in Thailand. It stars Gary Stretch who was Cleitus in Oliver Stone's "ALEXANDER" and was nominated for a U.K. BAFTA AWARD for "DEAD MAN'S SHOES". And John Rhys-Davies (star of the "Lord Of The Rings" and "Indiana Jones") Gary, is also the former Light Middleweight Boxing Champion of the World.
All U.S.A. rights to "THE KING MAKER" were purchased by SONY STUDIOS, and UNIVERSAL STUDIOS bought 4 foreign territories.
All Chinese rights were purchased by CHINA FILM, the largest distributor in China, where it had a very successful theatrical run.
The film played in Thailand in 110 cinemas for over one month, where it received 4 Thai Academy Award nominations and won The Star Entertainment Award.
"THE KING MAKER" won the Silver Ten Award as Outstanding Film in the FICTS International Film Festival in Mumbai, India. Competing, with 80 films from 22 countries.
As an actor, David is currently Co-Starring in the new film "HANUMAN The WHITE MONKEY WARRIOR" for Phranakorn Films which will be
released in Thailand in cinemas, August 6th 2008.
He can be also be seen in on the "Hallmark TV Channel" in the TV mini series "Blackbeard" where he is featured as Silas Barber.
Mr. Winters also appears as himself in the Universal Studios theatrical release "Inside Deep Throat" which delves into the psychology of what made this film the most successful film in the history of the cinema. Produced for $25,000.00 it grossed well over $600,000,000.00.
He and the infamous sex star of this film Linda Lovelace lived together for over 2 years in a highly publicized romance. This film is an Imagine Entertainment Production, produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer
(Academy Awards for Best film and best Director for "A Beautiful Mind"), "The Da Vinci Code", "Apollo Thirteen" "Cocoon" etc..
Mr. Winters has many new diverse projects in development all over the world, at different stages, and with many different partners.
One of these "NICHOLAS JINGLE", that David is currently producing, directing, and starring in, is an animation and live action family musical that has just begun pre-production in Malaysia. This film will take at least two years to complete.
At this time, Mr. Winters sees a great future in the British/European/Asian entertainment industry and spends a great deal of his time traveling between these continents. Although he holds both U.S.A. and British citizenship, he proclaims to being a citizen of the world.
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