Occupation Writer Name Dan Gordon | ||
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Education University of California, Los Angeles Books Murder in the First, Just Play Dead TV shows Soldier of Fortune, Inc., Sidekicks Movies Passenger 57, Murder in the First, The Hurricane, Surf Ninjas, The Assignment Similar People Armyan Bernstein, David Loughery, Kevin Hooks, Marc Rocco, Lawrence Kasdan | ||
Children Yoni Gordon, Zaki Gordon | ||
Dan Gordon is an Israeli-American writer, playwright, and reserve duty captain in the Israel Defense Forces.
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As a screenwriter, he has worked on films including Wyatt Earp, Passenger 57, Murder in the First, The Hurricane, Surf Ninjas, and television series such as Highway to Heaven, Highlander, and Soldier of Fortune, Inc. He has also written stage adaptations of Terms of Endearment and Rain Man, in addition to several novels based on his own experience fighting in the Gaza War.
Early life
Dan Gordon grew up in Southern California and in Ginnegar, a kibbutz in the Valley of Jezreel in Israel. He graduated from UCLA as a film and television major. A dual Israeli-American citizen, Gordon served in the Israeli Army as a young man.
Acting career
Gordon has written screenplays including Passenger 57 (1992), Wyatt Earp (1994), Murder in the First (1995), The Assignment (1997) and The Hurricane (1999).
His play, Irena's Vow, premiered at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, New York, in September 2008. Starring Tovah Feldshuh, it is the true story of Irena Gut, who hid twelve Jews in a cellar during World War II. The play is scheduled to open on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in previews starting March 10, 2009, officially March 29, 2009, with the same cast from off-Broadway. His stage adaptation of Barry Morrow's Rain Man premiered at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End in 2009 and was subsequently performed in places like Prague (Czech Republic), Stuttgart (Germany), Brussels (Belgium) and Utrecht (The Netherlands). Gordon is also a co-founder of the Zaki Gordon Institute (ZGI), a film school in Sedona, Arizona. The institute is named for his eldest son, Zaki Gordon, who died in a traffic accident in 1998 at the age of 22 years. Gordon taught part-time at the institute. He also teaches at Columbia University School of the Arts, USC School of Cinematic Arts and UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, to which he donates an annual $5,000 prize to screenwriting students in honor of his son.
In 2012, he left the Zaki Gordon Institute after founding the Zaki Gordon Center for Cinematic Arts at Liberty University in 2011. After Gordon left, The Zaki Gordon Institute changed its name to the Sedona Film School. Gordon was also a close friend of Tim Buckley, collaborating with him on an unfilmed movie script called "Fully Airconditioned Inside." He also played the role of a homeless man in the independent film Waiting for Mo (1996), which he produced with his son, Zaki, who wrote and directed the film.
He has been a member of the Directors Guild of America since 1985.
Military career
He served as an escort officer in the Military Spokesperson’s Unit during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
He is a captain in the Israel Defense Forces Reserves.
Personal life
Gordon had three sons, Zaki, Yoni and Adam. Zaki, his eldest, died in a traffic accident in 1998 at the age of 22. Gordon is Jewish, and has acted as a keynote speaker at Jewish and Christian religious conferences.