Name David Beaird | Spouse Shevonne Durkin | |
 | ||
Nominations Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play Movies Scorchers, My Chauffeur, The Party Animal, It Takes Two, The Civilization of Maxwe Similar People Leland Crooke, Matthew Causey, Kimberly Foster, Sean McClory, Deborah Foreman | ||
It Takes Two Trailer 1988
David Beaird (born 1952 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is an American film and stage director, screenwriter, and playwright.
Contents
Scorchers (1991) - Bear and Howler - Mahler symphony nº5
Career
In 1973 he was recipient of the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the play "The Hot l Baltimore" at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. In 1974 he founded the Wisdom Bridge Theatre which flourished after Robert Falls took the director's post in 1977.
Beaird's first feature film The Party Animal, a comedy, was released in 1984. His next film Octavia (1984) was about a blind woman who is raped by a motorcycle gang. In 1986 he came to wider prominence with the comedy My Chauffeur starring Deborah Foreman. In 1988 he shot the comedies Pass the Ammo with Bill Paxton, Linda Kozlowski, Tim Curry, and Annie Potts and It Takes Two featuring Kimberly Foster.
In 1991 he adapted his 1985 stage play Scorchers for the big screen, with Faye Dunaway, James Earl Jones, Emily Lloyd, Jennifer Tilly, and Leland Crooke in the leading roles. In 1993 he created the thirteen part television series Key West.
In 1994 he brought 900 Oneonta, a black comedy about a dysfunctional family, to the stage. It had its premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. Afterwards it was staged in the Old Vic and then at the West End theatre. It was the last play at the Circle Repertory Theatre in New York City before it was closed in 1996. Eddie Izzard, Leland Crooke, Jon Cryer, and Douglas Henshall performed in the play. In 2005 he directed the film The Civilization of Maxwell Bright which earned him awards at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, the WorldFest Houston and the Florida Film Festival in 2005.
Beaird is married to actress Shevonne Durkin.