Michael Mann

His grandfather left the Russian Empire in 1912, and brought his wife and Mann's father over in 1922.

Mann graduated from Amundsen High School, also the alma mater of Bob Fosse.

He then studied English literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

While a student, he saw Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and fell in love with movies.

In an LA Weekly interview, he described the film's impact on him:

"It said to my whole generation of filmmakers that you could make an individual statement of high integrity and have that film be successfully seen by a mass audience all at the same time. In other words, you didn't have to be making Seven Brides for Seven Brothers if you wanted to work in the mainstream film industry, or be reduced to niche filmmaking if you wanted to be serious about cinema. So that's what Kubrick meant, aside from the fact that Strangelove was a revelation."

Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American film director, screenwriter, author, and producer, best known for his stylized crime dramas.

Mann has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Mann was born February 5, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois.

He is Jewish and the son of Esther and Jack Mann.

Mann later moved to London in the mid-1960s to go to graduate school in cinema.

Mann graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a B.A. in 1965.

In 1967 he earned an M.A. from the London Film School.

He went on to receive a graduate degree at the London Film School in 1967.

He spent seven years in the United Kingdom going to film school and then working on commercials along with contemporaries Alan Parker, Ridley Scott and Adrian Lyne.

In 1968, footage he shot of the Paris student revolt for a documentary, Insurrection, aired on NBC's First Tuesday news program and he developed his '68 experiences into the short film Jaunpuri which won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1970.

Mann returned to United States after divorcing his first wife in 1971.

He went on to direct a road trip documentary, 17 Days Down the Line.

Three years later, Hawaii Five-O veteran Robert Lewin gave Mann a shot and a crash course on television writing and story structure.

Mann wrote four episodes of Starsky and Hutch (three in the first season and one in the second) and the pilot episode for Vega$.

Around this time, he worked on a show called Police Story with cop-turned-novelist Joseph Wambaugh.

Police Story concentrated on the detailed realism of a real cop's life and taught Mann that first-hand research was essential to bring authenticity to his work.

Mann also wrote an early draft of the 1978 film Straight Time.

His first feature movie was a television special called The Jericho Mile, which was released theatrically in Europe.

It won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special in 1979 and the DGA Best Director award.

His television work also includes being the executive producer on Miami Vice and Crime Story.

Contrary to popular belief, he was not the creator of these shows, but the executive producer and showrunner, produced by his production company.

His most acclaimed works include the films Thief (1981), Manhunter (1986), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Ali (2001), Collateral (2004), Public Enemies (2009), and Ferrari (2023).

Mann's debut feature in cinema as director was Thief (1981) starring James Caan, a relatively accurate depiction of thieves that operated in New York City and Chicago at that time.

Mann used actual former professional burglars to keep the technical scenes as genuine as possible.

His next film was The Keep (1983), a supernatural thriller set in Nazi-occupied Romania.

Though it was a commercial flop, the film has since attained cult status amongst fans.

He is also known for his role as executive producer on the popular TV series Miami Vice (1984–90), which he adapted into a 2006 feature film.

In 1986, Mann was the first to bring Thomas Harris' character of serial killer Hannibal Lecter to the screen with Manhunter, his adaptation of the novel Red Dragon, which starred Brian Cox as Hannibal.

In an interview on the Manhunter DVD, star William Petersen comments that because Mann is so focused on his creations, it takes several years for him to complete a film; Petersen believes that this is why Mann does not make films very often.

Mann gained widespread recognition in 1992 for his film adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's novel into the epic historical drama The Last of the Mohicans starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

The film is set during the French and Indian War.

Film critic Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly described Mann's directorial style, writing that "Mann, at his best, is a master of violence and lyrical anxiety".

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised Mann's directing, writing that "the action is richly detailed and thrillingly staged."

This was followed by crime drama Heat (1995) starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Val Kilmer.