Jimmy Lifton

James Ian Lifton (born January 13, 1955), also known as Jimmy Lifton, is an American musician and a producer.

In 1972, Lifton started his first band, Merlin.

Merlin's most notable performances were at the People's Ballroom, in Ann Arbor, where they opened for vocalist Mitch Ryder and The Knock Down Party Band, and Bob Seger.

Lifton attend The Royal Conservatory of Music and earned a degree in piano.

After graduation, Lifton moved to Boston to attend Berklee School of Music.

Soon he decided he had learned all that he could and moved back to Michigan to pursue a career in the music industry.

Lifton started off his professional musical career at age 21, working as a studio session player for Detroit-based studios, most notably Don Davis's famed Motown recording studio Groovesville Productions and Lorio Recording Studio.

Lifton co-founded his own record label, Orphan Records, with Virginia Perfili in 1981, and released his first single, "I Want to Talk to You", in 1982.

Lifton released his first EP, Untitled, in 1984.

The EP consisted of songs "I Wanna Talk to You", "Of Mystics", "Soldier", "Silence", "Harmony", and "Time We Were on Our Way".

In 1986, Lifton collaborated with Jimmy Miller and Steve Winwood to create a cover for their hit song "I'm a Man".

The music video featured live performance footage as well as dancers like August 1986 Playboy playmate Ava Fabian.

The video was directed by David Golden, produced by Marina Sargenti, with John LeBlanc serving as cinematographer.

Lifton self promoted the video, driving the song to #23 on the Billboard charts, which generated enough attention for Atlantic Records to take notice, leading them to buy the license and sign Lifton to a record deal.

Lifton enjoyed the process of making videos and started exploring the relatively new world of music videos.

Lifton worked extensively with Bruce Nazarian; together, they produced many 12" records that appeared on Orphan Records. Through his relationship with Bruce Nazarian, Lifton was hired in 1986 by Island Records to direct Millie Scott's music video for her song "Automatic". By involving himself with making music videos, Lifton became more and more interested in the art of filmmaking. By 1987, Lifton got his foot in the door of the film industry by working on the soundtrack of the feature film Kandyland.

Lifton's first major film production was the horror cult classic Mirror, Mirror (1990).

Since then, he has produced 18 feature films, working with actors like Mark Ruffalo, Christina Ricci, Hulk Hogan, James Brolin, Traci Lords, and Bruce Campbell.

In 1990, Lifton released his first feature-length film, Mirror, Mirror, starring Karen Black, Yvonne De Carlo, and William Sanderson.

The film was directed by Marina Sargenti.

Lifton produced the film, composed the music, and worked on the mechanical effects.

The 1994 sequel, Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance, starring Mark Ruffalo, Sally Kellerman, and Roddy McDowall, was the first film Lifton directed and co-wrote.

Lifton's Triad Studios released three films in 1995, starting with Final Equinox, which was written and directed by Serge Rodnunsky and starred Joe Lara and David Warner.

Next came sci-fi thriller Phoenix, which Lifton co-wrote with Troy Cook.

Troy directed the film, and Stephen Nichols, Brad Dourif, and Billy Drago starred in it.

After the two films, Lifton closed down the studio and finished the year with the release of Mirror, Mirror 3: The Voyeur.

The film was directed by Rachel Gordon and Virginia Perfili, and was written by Steve Tymon, Mark Ruffalo, Billy Drago, David Naughton.

Monique Parent starred in the film.

Lifton co-founded a post-production company called Oracle Post in 1996.

Oracle Post provides picture and sound needs for feature films and television, and has a client base that consists of companies like Fox, HBO, NBC, Universal, Disney, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Sony, Warner Brothers, and MTV.

Lifton was born in Detroit, Michigan.

He got an early start to his creative career, and at a young age he was graced with an apprenticeship to the Master Organist for the Detroit Symphony.

He co-founded Oracle Post with Paulette Victor-Lifton in 1996.

From 1996 until the late 2000s, Lifton contributed to many film and TV productions, most notably Blade: The Series, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Penguins of Madagascar, and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

In 1996, Lifton produced another three features.

The Secret Agent Club, was written by Rory Johnston and directed by John Murlowski.

Oracle post was used as the ADR facility for film productions Righteous Kill (2008), Saw V, and Superman Returns (2006), and TV shows Curb Your Enthusiasm (1999–2004), NCIS (2005–2006), Punk'd (2005–2006), and The X's (2005–2006).

Lifton won multiple Golden Reel Awards and was nominated for multiple Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on SpongeBob SquarePants.

Lifton won a Daytime Emmy as well as multiple Golden Reel Awards for his work on The Penguins of Madagascar (2008).

In 2012, Lifton won a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (2011).