1. David Henry Chase was born on August 22,1945 and is an American writer, producer, and director.
26 Facts About David Chase
1. 2.
David Chase is best known for being the creator, head writer, and executive producer of the HBO drama The Sopranos, which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2007.
3.
David Chase created the original series Almost Grown which aired for 10 episodes in 1988 and 1989.
4.
David Chase was born as an only child to Norma and Enrico "Henry" David Chase, both born in 1908 and hailing from Italian-American working class families.
5.
David Chase grew up in a small garden apartment in Clifton, New Jersey, and in North Caldwell, New Jersey.
6.
David Chase's father owned Wright's Hardware in Verona, New Jersey.
7.
David Chase grew up watching matinee crime films and was well known as a creative storyteller.
8.
David Chase has stated that he had many problems with his parents when he was a child.
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David Chase graduated from high school in 1964 and attended Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where his depression worsened.
10.
David Chase went on to attend Stanford University's School of Film, earning a Master of Arts degree in 1971.
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David Chase started in Hollywood as a story editor for Kolchak: The Night Stalker and then produced episodes of The Rockford Files and Northern Exposure, among other series.
12.
David Chase won several Emmy awards, including one for a television movie, Off the Minnesota Strip, the story of a runaway he scripted in 1980.
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David Chase got some input from his manager Lloyd Braun and decided to adapt it into a television series.
14.
David Chase signed a development deal in 1995 with production company Brillstein-Grey and wrote the original pilot script.
15.
David Chase drew heavily from his personal life and his experiences growing up in New Jersey, and has stated that he tried to apply his own "family dynamic to mobsters".
16.
David Chase was in psychotherapy at the time and modeled the character of Jennifer Melfi after his own psychiatrist.
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David Chase had been fascinated by organized crime and the mafia from an early age, witnessing such people growing up.
18.
David Chase was raised on classic gangster films such as The Public Enemy and the crime series The Untouchables.
19.
The series is partly inspired by the Richard Boiardo family, a prominent New Jersey organized crime family when David Chase was growing up, and partly on New Jersey's DeCavalcante family.
20.
David Chase has mentioned American playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as influences on the show's writing, and Italian director Federico Fellini as an important influence on the show's cinematic style.
21.
David Chase directed the pilot episode and the series finale.
22.
David Chase has previously developed A Ribbon of Dreams, a miniseries for HBO.
23.
David Chase is the father of actress Michele DeCesare, who appeared in six of The Sopranos episodes as Hunter Scangarelo.
24.
David Chase once stated that he "loathed and despised" television shows, watching only The Sopranos and movies.
25.
David Chase said that he previously made those negative comments in part because he had been frustrated working within the confines of 1990s network television.
26.
In 2023, David Chase was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.