1. Donald Everett Shebib was a Canadian film and television director.
31 Facts About Donald Shebib
1. 2.
Donald Shebib soon became frustrated by the bureaucratic process of film funding in Canada and chronic problems with distribution as well as a string of box office disappointments.
3.
Donald Shebib was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Mary Alice Long, a Newfoundlander of Irish descent, and Moses "Morris" Donald Shebib, born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1910, himself the son of Lebanese immigrants.
4.
The young Donald Shebib grew up loving sports, comic books, and Hollywood "chestnuts" or vintage films, the family acquired their first television set in 1952; for a certain time, Donald Shebib refused to watch any film made after 1940.
5.
Donald Shebib played semi-pro football as a young man, and studied sociology and history at the University of Toronto.
6.
In 1961, Donald Shebib enrolled in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, where he gained early experience working on Roger Corman productions, notably as a cinematographer and assistant editor on Dementia 13, his classmate Francis Ford Coppola's first film, and The Terror.
7.
Donald Shebib gained prominence and critical acclaim in Canadian cinema for his seminal 1970 feature Goin' Down the Road, which combined narrative storytelling with Canadian documentary tradition influenced by the British.
8.
Donald Shebib was one of four directors, and many critics, who felt the wrong film had won the Best Feature Film at the 25th Canadian Film Awards, which was already under pressure from a boycott of the awards by Quebec filmmakers.
9.
Today, Don Donald Shebib says he will never again enter a film in the Canadian Film Awards, that he needs a job and would take one in the US in a minute.
10.
Donald Shebib did enter his next film, Second Wind and won the award for Best Editing.
11.
Donald Shebib found success once more with Heartaches, described by Wyndham Wise as a variation of Goin' Down the Road with a pair of working-class women.
12.
In between The Ascent and Down the Road Again, Donald Shebib said there had been little work, though he had written a few scripts.
13.
Donald Shebib earned critical acclaim and a Canadian Film Award for Good Times, Bad Times, made for the CBC in 1969.
14.
In 1970, Donald Shebib said that his personal philosophy was influenced by television and the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan.
15.
Donald Shebib was a brilliant filmmaker, and Tom Daly was a very important film person, and Don Owen and myself.
16.
In 2011, Donald Shebib told Geoff Pevere he had expanded his range of Hollywood cinematic viewing from watching only films up to 1950 to films made as late as and even later than 1950, but contended that movies mainly "went in the toilet" after 1950.
17.
In 1973, Donald Shebib said that an independent filmmaker must become involved in all aspects of the filmmaking process.
18.
Donald Shebib believed in the John Ford style of cinematic storytelling.
19.
Piers Handling noted that Donald Shebib was so preoccupied with male bonding that women were absent from his work prior to the start of his feature film career, and likewise identified a tension between the desire to transcend boundaries and existential limits.
20.
Donald Shebib still considered himself a sociologist at heart, and suggested his films had a strong sociological basis, incorporating social commentary, human relationships being a frequent theme.
21.
The wonder of Don Donald Shebib is not that he makes good films but that he makes them here.
22.
In 2017, Donald Shebib was presented with a Directors Guild of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award.
23.
Donald Shebib surfed while he lived in Los Angeles, and continued to play football until 1981 when he had to stop due to shoulder injuries, nevertheless remaining active: he played golf and rock climbed, still able to train enough in 1993 to make the mountain climbing film, The Ascent, for which he climbed up to 15,000 feet.
24.
Donald Shebib married Canadian actress Tedde Moore, whom he met through a mutual friend.
25.
Donald Shebib met his lifelong friend Carroll Ballard, with whom he often collaborated, while attending classes at UCLA.
26.
Donald Shebib attended classes at UCLA with Francis Ford Coppola and worked with him on Dementia 13.
27.
Donald Shebib "hung out" with Jim Morrison during this period, and one summer Beach Boys guitarist Al Jardine stayed with him and his roommates, sharing a love of Gilbert and Sullivan musical numbers.
28.
On his return to Toronto, Donald Shebib met and befriended writer and editor William Fruet when he began working for the CBC on The Way It Is.
29.
Donald Shebib was close friends and dated dancer and columnist Zella Wolofsky who provided guidance on the beginning and ending of Nightalk.
30.
Donald Shebib died on 5 November 2023, at the age of 85.
31.
Donald Shebib directed at least one episode of the following series.