Awarded honorary degree by Wesleyan University (June 3, 1990)
He co-directed Bruce Springsteen's "Streets Of Philadelphia" music video.
Uncle of Ted Demme
Has 3 children, with wife Joanne Howard.
Directed Bruce Springsteen's "Murder Incorporated" music video (1995).
Frequently uses Pablo Ferro for his Title Sequences and montages
Was voted the 45th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 255-258. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
Father of Josephine Demme
He frequently casts the same actors in most of his films, including Paul Lazar, Ted Levine, Harry Northup, Charles Napier, Dean Stockwell, Robert W. Castle, Denzel Washington, Jude Ciccolella, and Tracey Walter. He also tends to use non-actor friends or musicians he likes, as long as they are "interesting".
Directed 7 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Christine Lahti, Dean Stockwell, Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster and Tom Hanks. Steenburgen, Hopkins, Foster and Hanks won Oscars for their performances in one of Demme's movies.
He and Michael Mann have both directed a Hannibal Lecter film, and have also both been involved in a film about Howard Hughes. Mann directed Manhunter and produced The Aviator, which he was originally to have directed. One of Demme's earliest films was Melvin and Howard, and he later went on to direct The Silence of the Lambs.
Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000
Jonathan Demme Detailed Biography
Jonathan Demme (born February 22, 1944, in Baldwin, New York) is an American film director, producer and writer.
Demme won the Academy Award for Directing for The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.
One of his common directoral motifs is to allow characters to look directly into the camera.
Jonathan formed his production company, Clinica Estetico, with producers Edward Saxon and Peter Saraf. They were based out of New York for fifteen years. Jonathan Demme was the uncle to director Ted Demme, who died in 2002.
Jonathan Demme also has a teenage son.
