Bruce Cohen

For the American rabbi and co-founder of Interns for Peace, see Bruce M. Cohen.

Bruce L. Cohen (born September 23, 1961) is a film, television, and theater producer. He is best known for producing the films American Beauty, Milk, and Silver Linings Playbook. American Beauty won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 72nd Academy Awards ceremony.

Bruce Cohen
Cohen in 2015
Born	(1961-09-23) September 23, 1961 (age 63) Falls Church, Virginia, US
Occupation	Producer
Years active	1985–present
Notable work	American Beauty Milk Silver Linings Playbook
Spouse	Gabriel Catone ​ (m. 2008)​
Children	1
Awards	Academy Award for Best Picture American Beauty (1999)

Early life and education

Cohen was born to a Jewish family and raised in Falls Church, Virginia.^[1] In 1983, he graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies.^[2]

Career

After school, Cohen moved to Los Angeles, where he accepted a clerical job as a Directors Guild of America trainee on Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple,^[1] and went on to serve as associate producer and first assistant director on Spielberg's Hook. In 2000, Cohen won the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing American Beauty.^[3] The film, directed by Sam Mendes, won a total of five Oscars, as well as the Golden Globe, British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA), and Producers Guild of America (PGA) awards.

He later earned additional Best Picture nominations for Milk and Silver Linings Playbook. Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant, was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won Oscars for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, as well as the PGA's Stanley Kramer Award. Silver Linings Playbook, written and directed by David O. Russell, was nominated for eight Oscars. It was the first film in 31 years to be nominated in all four acting categories, with Jennifer Lawrence going on to win the Oscar for Best Actress.

Other films Cohen has produced include Big Fish, directed by Tim Burton, which was nominated for both Golden Globe and BAFTA Best Picture awards. In 2013, he served as lead producer of the stage musical version of Big Fish on Broadway, under the direction and choreography of five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman.

On television, Cohen was executive producer of the ABC series Pushing Daisies, which won a total of seven Emmys and was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Comedy. He was also executive producer of the CBS special Movies Rock. In 2011, he was nominated for an Emmy in 2011 for producing the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

Cohen is on the Board of Governors of the Producer's Guild, having served two terms as vice president of motion pictures, and is on the Executive Committee of the Producers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is president of the board of directors of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group behind the recently successful Supreme Court case to have California's Proposition 8 declared unconstitutional.

In 2019, Bruce Cohen joined the Advisory Board for the Harlem Film House, which presents the Hip Hop Film Festival, an annual event that focuses on filmmakers from the global culture of hip hop and also promotes financial sustainability for independent filmmakers from marginalized or economically disadvantaged communities.^[4][5][6][7]

Personal life

He is married to Gabriel Catone and they have a daughter.^[8]

Filmography

Cohen was a producer on all films unless otherwise noted:

Film

Year	Film	Credit
1991	Hook	Associate producer
1993	Alive	Co-producer
1994	The Flintstones
1995	To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar	Executive producer
1997	Mouse Hunt
1999	American Beauty
2000	The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
2003	Down with Love
	Big Fish
2004	The Forgotten
2007	The Nines
2008	Milk
2012	Silver Linings Playbook
2016	Bleed for This
2017	Rebel in the Rye
2023	Ex-Husbands
2023	Rustin
2024	Blink Twice
TBA	Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?
	Stardusk	Executive producer

Second unit director or assistant director

Year	Film	Role
1985	The Color Purple	DGA trainee
1987	Cherry 2000
	Batteries Not Included	Second assistant director
1988	The Couch Trip
	Satisfaction
	Cocoon: The Return
	The Boost
1989	Always
1990	Arachnophobia	First assistant director
1991	Hook
2000	The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas	Second unit director

As an actor

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1999	American Beauty	Bartender	Uncredited

Script and continuity department

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1994	The Flintstones	Script revision	Uncredited

Thanks

Year	Film	Role
2000	Mothman	The producers wish to thank
2022	To Leslie	Special thanks

Television

Year	Title	Credit	Notes
1996	Centennial Olympic Games: Torch Relay Opening Ceremonies		Television special
	Mistrial		Television film
2005	Hate	Executive producer	Television film
2007	Traveler	Executive producer
	Side Order of Life	Executive producer
	Movies Rock	Executive producer	Television special
2007−09	Pushing Daisies	Executive producer
2011	83rd Academy Awards		Television special
2012	8	Executive producer	Television film
2017	When We Rise	Executive producer

Miscellaneous crew

Year	Title	Role
1990	As the World Turns	Technical director

References

1. The Jewish Journal: "Bruce Cohen: A career full of ‘Silver Linings’" by Naomi Pfefferman February 19, 2013
2. "Bruce L. Cohen '83 B.A." Yale University. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
3. "Bruce Cohen". IMDb. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
4. Staff, S. B. N. (September 30, 2019). "THEO ROSSI & BRUCE COHEN JOIN THE ADVISORY BOARD AT HARLEM FILM HOUSE". Silicon Beach News. Archived from the original on September 20, 2021. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
5. House, Harlem Film (September 17, 2019). "THEO ROSSI & BRUCE COHEN JOIN THE ADVISORY BOARD AT HARLEM FILM HOUSE". Medium. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
6. "Harlem Film House Our Team". Harlem Film House. December 27, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
7. Amos, Jim. "Groundbreaking Hip Hop Film Festival Returns For Its 5th Season". Forbes. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
8. "Hollywood stands behind same-sex marriage". The Associated Press. October 22, 2008. Retrieved October 26, 2023.

External links

• Bruce Cohen at IMDb