21 Facts About Jake Eberts

Jake Eberts, OC was a Canadian film producer, executive and financier.

Jake Eberts was known for his work on Academy Award-winning titles Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Dances with Wolves, and the successful animated feature Chicken Run.

Jake Eberts attended Bishop's College School in Lennoxville, Quebec and graduated from McGill University and Harvard Business School.

Jake Eberts' working career began as a start-up engineer for L'Air Liquide in Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

Jake Eberts then spent three years as a Wall Street investor, including working at Laird Incorporated.

Jake Eberts learned a great deal from this setback, as the output of the company was for the most part exceptional and financially rewarding, with such other films to its credit as The Howling, Chariots of Fire, Local Hero, Gandhi, The Killing Fields and The Dresser.

Jake Eberts developed a reputation as an astute and shrewd financier.

Jake Eberts resigned from the company in 1984, but returned a year later to attempt to rescue it financially.

Jake Eberts continued on until 1987 when he resigned for the last time.

Jake Eberts since produced or executive produced John Boorman's Hope and Glory, his second pair of back-to-back Oscar winners Driving Miss Daisy, Dances with Wolves, Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It and Henry Selick's adaptation of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach.

Jake Eberts served as a co-executive producer of Chicken Run.

In 2002, Jake Eberts became chairman of National Geographic Feature Films and executive produced such titles as the live action animal feature Two Brothers by Jean-Jacques Annaud.

Jake Eberts branched out into documentaries including Prisoner of Paradise, which was nominated for Best Picture in the feature documentary category at the 2003 Academy Awards, and America's Heart and Soul.

Jake Eberts had been developing The Last Empress, a $60 million joint Sino-American venture about the ruthless Empress Dowager Cixi, who effectively controlled the Qing dynasty in the late 19th century.

In 1992 Jake Eberts became an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Jake Eberts was awarded honorary doctorates by McGill University in 1998 and by Bishop's University in 1999.

Jake Eberts served on the board of the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Channel.

Jake Eberts was co-founder and CEO of MPI International, which provides high-speed, two-way video transmission capabilities to telcos, cable companies, hotels, hospitals, and schools.

Jake Eberts was diagnosed in late 2010 with uveal melanoma, a rare cancer of the eye, which spread to his liver.

Jake Eberts died at the age of 71 in Montreal on September 6,2012.

Jake Eberts was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.