directing Topol in Fiddler on the Roof in 1971

directing Cher in Moonstruck in 1987

The DGA Lifetime Achievement Award winner is selected by the present and past presidents of the Guild. In the Guild’s 73-year history, only 32 directors have been recognized with the honor, including Cecil B. DeMille (1953), Frank Capra (1959), Alfred Hitchcock (1968), Orson Welles (1984), Billy Wilder (1985), Akira Kurosawa (1992), Stanley Kubrick (1997), Francis Ford Coppola (1998), Steven Spielberg (2000), Martin Scorsese (2003), and most recently, Clint Eastwood (2006).

Norman Jewison has been a vibrant force in the motion picture industry for four decades. Nominated for three DGA Awards, the filmmaker has been personally nominated for four Oscars; his films have received 46 nominations and 12 Academy Awards. He has also been nominated for three Best Director Awards. In 1999, Jewison received the prestigious Irving Thalberg Award at the Academy Awards.

Jewison began his career in show business as an actor on stage and radio in Canada. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1949, he participated in a two-year work/study program with the BBC in London, followed by a return to Canada, where his directing career began with seven years as a director, writer and producer for CBC-TV in Canada. In the late 1950s, Jewison moved to New York where he directed CBS series Your Hit Parade as well as The Andy Williams Show, Tonight with Belafonte, The Fabulous Fifties, Danny Kaye’s television debut and several Judy Garland specials, collecting three Emmys along the way.

directing Denzel Washington in The Hurricane in 1999

on the set of In Country in 1989

His film debut as a director came with the 1962 comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble, followed quickly by several more romantic comedies. With The Cincinnati Kid, Jewison broke out of the romantic comedy genre as he began exploring a wide range of styles as well as the complex social issues such as racism and corruption that would characterize a number of his films throughout the coming years. 1966’s The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming, garnered Jewison his first DGA nomination. The following year’s In the Heat of the Night brought another DGA nomination and won five Academy Awards including Best Picture in 1967. A Soldier’s Story brought his third DGA nomination; additional Academy Award nominations for Best Director followed for Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck.

In addition to directing, Jewison and his Yorktown Productions have produced many projects, including Hal Ashby’s first film, The Landlord, and the television series Picture Windows. He is an active supporter of the Canadian film industry, founding the Canadian Film Centre in 1986 to give Canadian filmmakers the opportunity to hone their skills. In 1992 he was made a Companion to The Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor. In 2004, his autobiography This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me was published, a candid memoir of his life in film and television. Also in 2004, Jewison was appointed chancellor of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, a position he continues to hold today.