Jake Eberts (b. October 7, 1941). Movie producer, executive and financier. Known for risk-taking and producing a consistently high caliber of movies including such award-winning titles as "Chariots of Fire" (1981, uncredited ), "Ghandi" (1982), "Dances with Wolves" (1990), and the successful animated feature "Chicken Run" (2000). October 7 is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years). ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Early Life and Career

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Jake Eberts grew up in Montreal and Arvida. He attended Bishop's College in Lennoxville, Quebec and graduated from McGill University (Bachelor of Chemical Engineering 1962) and Harvard Business School (MBA 1966). Eberts' working career began as a start-up engineer for L'Air Liquide in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. He then spent three years as a Wall Street investor. He moved to London, England in 1971, where he joined Oppenheimer & Co., rising to the position of managing director of the UK brokerage and investment company in 1976. Montreal courthouse in 1880. ... The first European explorer of what is now Quebec was Jacques Cartier, who planted a cross either in the Gaspé in 1534 or at Old Fort Bay on the Lower North Shore and sailed into the St. ... The Bishops College in Colombo, Sri Lanka was founded by the Church of England in February 1857. ... Lennoxville, population 4,963 (2001), is a borough (Fr. ... McGill University is a publicly funded, research-intensive, non-denominational, co-educational, international university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University, and is one of the worlds leading management schools. ... For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ...

With Goldcrest Films

With no apparent prior interest in film, about 1977 he turned to film financing, and joined David Putnam in founding Goldcrest Films, an independent film production company, for which he served as president and CEO. His first venture was the animated movie "Watership Down". David Terence Puttnam, Lord Puttnam of Queensgate (born February 25, 1941) is a British film producer and politician. ... Goldcrest Films is a British film production company founded by David Puttnam. ...

While with the company, in 1979 he made a disastrous personal investment of US$750,000 in "Zulu Dawn", which would take him almost a decade to recover from. He obviously 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". "Chariots of Fire" and "Gandhi" won back-to-back Oscars in 1981 and 1982 respectively, and in the period from 1977 to 1983 the company's films received 30 Oscar nominations and won 15. He developed a reputation as an astute and shrewd financier with impeccable taste in material. Rather than seek new talent, he chose to support established directors such as Sir Richard Attenborough, Roland Joffé, Jean-Jacques Annaud, John Boorman, many of whom have worked with him on several pictures. OSCAR is an acronym for Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. ... Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, KBE, CBE (born on August 29, 1923 in Cambridge, England) is a prolific British actor, director and film producer. ... Roland Joffé (born November 17, 1945) is a British film director who started out directing television. ... Jean-Jacques Annaud (born October 1st, 1943) is a French film director. ... John Boorman (born January 18, 1933 in Shepperton, Surrey, United Kingdom), is a British filmmaker, currently based in Ireland, best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, and The General. ...

He resigned from the company in 1984, but returned a year later to attempt to rescue it financially. From its early success of just a few years earlier, when it was seen as a possible saviour of the British film industry, the company had been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the failure of three high-budget films - "Revolution" and "The Mission" (1985) and "Absolute Beginners" (1986) [[1]].

Eberts continued on until 1987 when he resigned for the last time. The company would continued on under new ownership. Eberts detailed the disaster in his 1990 memoir, My Indecision is Final: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Goldcrest Films (co-authored with (with Terry Ilott).

As An Independent

Meanwhile, in 1985 he founded Allied Filmmakers, an affiliate of Pathe. With this company, in 1986 he made his debut as executive producer for Annaud's "The Name of the Rose". He since produced or executive produced John Boorman's "Hope and Glory" (1987), his second pair of back-to-back Oscar winners "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989) and "Dances With Wolves" (1990), Robert Redford's "A River Runs Through It" (1992) and Tim Burton's adaptation of Roald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach" (1995). During this period he was responsible as executive for the expensive flop, "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988), which thankfully went on to popular success in home videocassette and DVD rentals [[2]]. Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France. ... Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. ... Tim Burton, circa 2001. ... Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1954 Roald Dahl (September 13, 1916 – November 23, 1990) was a British novelist and short story author of Norwegian descent, famous as a writer for both children and adults. ... The video cassette recorder (or VCR, less popularly video tape recorder) is a type of video tape recorder that uses removable cassettes containing magnetic tape to record audio and video from a television broadcast so it can be played back later. ... DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ...

Eberts moved to Paris about 1991.

"Dances with Wolves" was an early picture of Eberts to feature a native American theme. Later productions included (as producer or executive producer), Bruce Beresford's "Black Robe" (1991), "The Education of Little Tree" (1997), and Richard Attenborough's "Grey Owl" (1998). The latter three pictures were all produced in Canada. Bruce Beresford Bruce Beresford (born 16 August 1940) is an Australian film director, and to a much lesser extent writer, producer and actor. ...

He also served as a co-executive producer (with Jeffrey Katzenberg) of "Chicken Run" (2000). Jeffrey Katzenberg (born December 21, 1950 in New York City) is a film producer and co-founder of DreamWorks SKG. He is most famous for producing the movie Shrek (2001). ...

National Geographic Feature Films

In 2002, Eberts, became chairman of National Geographic Feature Films (NGFF) and executive produced such titles as the live action animal feature "Two Brothers" by Jean-Jacques Annaud. He has also 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" (2004). Under his direction, NGFF had an enormous success in 2005 by distributing the sleeper documentary "March of the Penguins" (original French title, "La Marche de l'empereur"). The National Geographic Society was founded in the USA on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ...

Honours and Other Achievements

In 1992 Eberts became an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was also awarded honorary doctorates by McGill University in 1998 and by Bishop's University in 1999. He serves on the Board of the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Channel. He is also Co-Founder and CEO of MPI International, which provides high-speed, two-way video transmission capabilities to telcos, cable companies, hotels, hospitals, and schools. The Order of Canada is Canadas highest civilian honour, with membership awarded to those who exemplify the Orders Latin motto Desiderantes meliorem patriam, which means, They desire a better country. ... Bishops University is an English language liberal arts university located in Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada. ... The Sundance Institute is a center started by actor Robert Redford in 1981. ... Sundance Channel is a cable television network devoted to airing independent films, documentaries, short films, and more, such as news about the latest developments from each years Sundance Film Festival. ... TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company A telephone company (or telco) provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications. ...

By 2005, Eberts had been associated with films garnering 65 Oscar nominations, including eight for Best Picture.

External Links

• Biography
• |Hollywood.com Biography
• [3]|Screen Online