Don Simpson

Simpson was born in Seattle, Washington, to June Hazel (née Clark), a housewife, and Russell J. Simpson, a mechanic at Boeing at the time of his son's birth.{{cite web|url=https://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/don_simpson.htm|title=Don Simpson|work=lukeford.net}} He grew up in Juneau, Alaska. His parents were strict Baptists and Simpson would go to church four to five times a week.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-06-06-tm-289-story.html|title=Don and Jerry's Blue Period : They Were the Ultimate Hollywood Success Story. But in Tinseltown, Their Failure Was an Even Better Yarn.|website=Los Angeles Times|date=June 6, 1993|author=Richard Natale}} He would call himself a "straight-A Bible student".{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/14/movies/simpson-and-bruckheimer-part-2.html|title=Simpson and Bruckheimer, Part 2|website=The New York Times|date=March 14, 1994|author=Bernard Weinraub}} He attended West Anchorage High School and later majored in English at the University of Oregon. Upon graduation, Simpson worked as a ski instructor in Utah. He later moved to San Francisco where he worked for a theatrical advertising agency and did public relations for the First International Erotic Film Festival.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/im-don-simpson-and-youre-not-1303661.html|title=I'm Don Simpson; And You're Not|last=Thomson|first=David|date=April 7, 1996|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=October 27, 2009}}

In the early 1970s, Simpson started working for Jack Wodell & Associates in San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles.{{Cite web |title=The Demons that Drove Don Simpson - Playboy |url=https://www.iplayboy.com/ |access-date=July 22, 2022 |website=Playboy {{!}} The Complete Archive |language=en}} He got a job marketing exploitation films for Warner Bros in 1972, handling distribution marketing for the movies Woodstock and A Clockwork Orange.

In 1975 Simpson went into an interview with Paramount Pictures. He was referred by his friend Steve Tisch, nephew of Larry Tisch (who later owned CBS and Westinghouse), for the job Steve Tisch turned down. Steve Tisch would later go on to produce Risky Business, Forrest Gump and more. Jerry Bruckheimer, who was already friends with Simpson, loaned his personal car to Simpson to drive to the interview.{{Cite book |last=Fleming |first=Charles |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56922908 |title=High concept : Don Simpson and the Hollywood culture of excess. |date=1999 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=0-7475-4262-7 |location=London |oclc=56922908}}

While there, he co-wrote the 1976 film Cannonball, in which he also had a small role. By 1977, he was named vice-president of production at Paramount, and president in 1981.{{cite web|url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/19850901188|title=Gone Hollywood|website=Esquire|author=Lynn Hirschberg|date=September 1, 1985}} He was fired at Paramount in 1982 after passing out during a studio meeting due to drug use.{{cite web|url=https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/king1-26-96.htm|title=Fatal Attraction How Sex and Drugs Brutally Ripped Apart Hot Hollywood Team|website=The Wall Street Journal|author=Thomas King and John Lippman|date=January 26, 1996}} He was working on eight productions at once, and would regularly throw a tantrum while in production.

Soon after, he forged a partnership with fellow producer Jerry Bruckheimer.{{cite web |title=Don Simpson Bio |date=March 4, 2015 |url=https://filmstarfacts.com/2015/03/04/don-simpson-producer-1943-1996/ |publisher=FilmStar}}{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/1996/02/02/don-simpson-passes-away/|title=Don Simpson passes away|last=Ascher-Walsh|first=Rebecca|date=February 22, 1996|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|page=1|access-date=December 2, 2012|archive-date=July 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702092210/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,291215,00.html|url-status=live}} The two would go on to produce some of the most financially successful films of the 1980s: Flashdance (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Top Gun (1986) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). In 1985 and again in 1988, he and Bruckheimer were named Producers of the Year by the National Association of Theatre Owners.{{cite web|url=https://texasarchive.org/2015_01647#:~:text=The%20duo%20was%20responsible%20for,Owners%20in%201985%20and%201988.|title=The Roy Faires Collection - Interview with Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson (1987)

|date=October 2016}} The success of Flashdance prompted Simpson and Bruckheimer to launch their own production company that was affiliated with Paramount Pictures.{{Cite news|date=August 10, 1983|title=Par Signs Simpson, Bruckheimer To A 3-Year Exclusivity|page=3|work=Variety}}

In 1990, Simpson and Bruckheimer signed a five-year deal with Paramount worth a reported $300 million. The deal would prove to be short lived. Later that year, the Simpson/Bruckheimer-produced Days of Thunder starring Tom Cruise was released. The auto racing film received mixed reviews and grossed $158 million (on a $60 million budget). While a financial success, it did not match the success of Simpson and Bruckheimer's previous films. Simpson and Bruckheimer blamed Paramount for the film's lackluster box-office returns, saying the studio rushed its planning and release. Paramount blamed the film's performance on Simpson and Bruckheimer's overspending. The duo parted with Paramount shortly thereafter.{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/1996/02/02/don-simpson-passes-away/|title=Don Simpson passes away|last=Ascher-Walsh|first=Rebecca|date=February 22, 1996|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|page=2|access-date=December 2, 2012}}{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-18-fi-119-story.html|title='Top Gun' Producers, Disney Sign Deal|last=Citron|first=Alan|date=January 18, 1991|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=December 2, 2012}}

In 1991, the two signed with Disney. Their first film for Disney, The Ref (1994), was a financial flop. Their next films, Dangerous Minds, Crimson Tide, and Bad Boys (distributed by Columbia Pictures rather than Disney), all released in 1995, returned them to success.

Simpson never married. In the 1970s, he took classes to join the Church of Scientology but quit after spending $25,000 and not seeing any significant personal improvements.{{Cite web|date=October 17, 1993|title=MEDIA WATCH : The Church and The Magazines|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-17-ca-46944-story.html|access-date=November 11, 2021|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}{{cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who-used-to-practice-scientology-2012-7#don-simpson-13|title=13 Former Celebrity Scientologists|website=Business Insider|date=July 16, 2012|author=Kirsten Acuna}} During the shooting of Days of Thunder, Simpson threw Scientology leader David Miscavige off the production after Simpson refused to pay for a more expensive Scientology-patented sound recording device.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-17-ca-46944-story.html|title=MEDIA WATCH : The Church and The Magazines|website=Los Angeles Times|date=October 17, 1993|author=Jane Galbraith}}

Simpson was known for his brash personality, provocative comments and questionable claims. Of director Steven Spielberg, Simpson said, "I'm surprised for a smart Jew he's as white-bread as he is."{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-09-01-ca-25558-story.html|title=FASTEST GUMS IN THE WEST : Nothing Succeeds Here Like a Bulletproof Batting Average|date=September 1, 1985|website=Los Angeles Times}} He later said, "Any person who suggested David Lynch for Dune should have every part of their anatomy examined." He said several times that, as a producer, "our obligation is to make money".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/mar/12/features|title=Son of a pitch|website=The Guardian|date=March 12, 1999}} Simpson worked out every day with special equipment provided by Arnold Schwarzenegger.{{cite web|url=https://www.laweekly.com/days-of-plunder/|title=Days of plunder|website=LA Weekly|date=April 22, 1998|author=Charles Fleming}}

Simpson claimed he discovered Michael Mann, launched Debra Winger's career and cast Richard Gere for American Gigolo. He also claimed he created the concept for Beverly Hills Cop, which Michael Eisner denied. In the movie industry, professionals working with Simpson would refer to the "Don Simpson Discount Factor" (DSDF, coined by Jeff Katzenberg), a way to tone down his exaggerations.

According to director Robert Altman, Simpson opposed the proposed casting of Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl for the project Popeye by standing up at a 1979 meeting of studio executives and saying, "Well, I wouldn't want to fuck her. And if I don't want to fuck her, she shouldn't be in the movie."{{Cite book |last=Biskind |first=Peter |title=Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1998 |isbn=0-684-80996-6 |location=New York |pages=370}}

Due to their films' success, Simpson and Bruckheimer became very rich. They often dressed in similar clothing, choosing black as their signature color. Simpson would wear black Levi 501 jeans only before their first wash and then throw them away. He frequented the Canyon Ranch in Arizona for occasional workouts and tanning. Though Simpson claimed he never underwent any plastic surgery procedures, there are reports that he underwent ten different plastic surgeries between 1988 and 1994, including a penis-enlargement procedure. Those surgeries eventually led to infection and many reversal procedures.{{cite web|url=https://filmstarfacts.com/2015/03/04/don-simpson-producer-1943-1996/|title=Don Simpson (Producer) – bizarre sex life?|website=Film Star Facts|date=March 4, 2015}}

As Simpson and Bruckheimer's success grew, so did Simpson's reputation as a "party animal". He said that "next to eating and having sex, making movies is the best thing in the world". Simpson's debauched lifestyle was well known in Hollywood and has been documented in a number of sources. He was a fixture on the "Hollywood cocaine-party" circuit throughout the 1970s and '80s, and in his later years became known for throwing lavish all-night parties at his mansion.{{cite web |title=Fatal Attraction: How Sex and Drugs Brutally Ripped Apart Hot Hollywood Team |url=https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/king1-26-96.htm |publisher=The Wall Street Journal}} An entire chapter of the book You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again (which describes four prostitutes' stories about their sexual encounters with Hollywood celebrities) discusses his frequent sex parties and preference for S & M.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-apr-26--story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231001610/http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/26/books/bk-43000/2|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 31, 2014|title=Don Simpson: Hollywood Death|date=April 2, 1998|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=September 5, 2016}} He also gave himself testosterone shots to boost his sex drive. According to the call girl Alexandra Datig, Simpson auditioned struggling actresses for his movies, convinced them to have sex with him, and secretly filmed their sex acts.

Simpson had been using cocaine since the 1970s, but increased his usage over the years.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-18-mn-35445-story.html|title=Don Simpson's Death Showed Depth of Abuse|last=Philips|first=Chuck|date=August 18, 1996|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=July 4, 2022}} The excessive spending (in both films and his personal life) and erratic mood swings caused by his drug use were well known in Hollywood by the 1990s. In a 1994 interview with The New York Times, Simpson tried to downplay his reputation and claimed that while he had done drugs in the past, he had stopped. He claimed that his only addiction at the time was food. According to screenwriter James Toback, Simpson's drug use never stopped, and prompted David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg to stage an intervention to get Simpson to go to rehab.

Simpson refused to admit himself into a traditional rehab facility. In 1995, he employed a doctor named Stephen Ammerman to help him with his addiction. Ammerman, who had a history of drug abuse himself, believed that in order for Simpson to quit drugs, he had to use other drugs to combat the painful withdrawal symptoms. Ammerman designed what has been called a "dangerously unorthodox" detox program, which included several medications (including morphine) for Simpson to take at home.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-08-17-me-36140-story.html|title=Doctor, 44, Found Dead at Home of Producer: Probe: Body discovered in pool house of Don Simpson. There are no signs of trauma, officials say.|work=Los Angeles Times|date=August 17, 1995|first1=Carla|last1=Hall|first2=Chuck|last2=Philips}} In August 1995, Ammerman died at Simpson's residence, from what was later determined to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, Valium, venlafaxine, and morphine.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-06-me-32938-story.html|title=Narcotics Unit Probes Don Simpson's Death |last1=Philips |first1=Chuck |last2=Hall|first2=Carla|date=February 6, 1996 |work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=December 2, 2012}}

Frustrated with Simpson's escalating drug use and declining work, Bruckheimer terminated their partnership in December 1995. The two agreed to finish work on The Rock, which was already in production.{{cite web |url=https://ew.com/article/1996/02/02/don-simpson-passes-away/ |title=Don Simpson passes away|last=Ascher-Walsh |first=Rebecca |date=February 22, 1996 |work=Entertainment Tonight |page=3 |access-date=December 2, 2012}} Simpson died before production was completed, and the film is dedicated to his memory.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-07-ca-12444-story.html |title=Between a 'Rock' and Loud Place |last=Turan |first=Kenneth|date=August 7, 1996 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=December 2, 2012}}

On January 19, 1996, Simpson was found dead in the bathroom of his Bel Air, Los Angeles, home.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/21/nyregion/don-simpson-is-dead-at-52-produced-blockbuster-films.html |title=Don Simpson Is Dead at 52; Produced Blockbuster Films|last=Pace|first=Eric|date=January 21, 1996|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=October 26, 2009}} His death was initially attributed to "natural causes". An autopsy and toxicology report later determined that Simpson had died of heart failure caused by combined drug intoxication (cocaine and prescription medications).{{cite news |last=Fleming |first=Charles |date=April 22, 1998 |title=Days of Plunder |url=https://www.laweekly.com/arts/days-of-plunder-2129484 |newspaper=LA Weekly |access-date=July 4, 2020}} At the time of his death, there were 21 different drugs in his system, including antidepressants, stimulants, sedatives, and tranquilizers. In August 1996, investigative reporter Chuck Philips of the Los Angeles Times revealed that Simpson had been obtaining large quantities of prescription drugs from 15 different doctors, and that police found 2,200 prescription pills lined up in alphabetical order in his bedroom closet.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/obituary-don-simpson-1325371.html |title=Obituary: Don Simpson|last=Shipman|first=David|date=January 23, 1996 |newspaper=The Independent |location=UK |access-date=December 2, 2012}}

A 1998 book by journalist Charles Fleming reported that Simpson's prescription drug expenses totaled more than $60,000 a month at the time of his death. He called Simpson "a supercharged simple-minded creature, an Aesop's fable on crystal meth".{{cite book |last=Fleming |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Fleming (author) |title=High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess |publisher=Doubleday |year=1998 |page=[https://archive.org/details/highconceptdonsi00flem_0/page/9 9] |isbn=0-385-48694-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/highconceptdonsi00flem_0/page/9}}

Following his death, his brother Lary Simpson had his own production banner, in order to develop products originated by Don Simpson himself in 1997{{Cite web|last=Petrikin|first=Chris|date=March 27, 1997|title=Lary Simpson hangs out prod'n shingle|url=https://variety.com/1997/scene/vpage/lary-simpson-hangs-out-prod-n-shingle-1117342117/|access-date=January 20, 2022|website=Variety|language=en-US}} until his death at his home in Noank, Connecticut, on January 25, 2023, at the age of 77.{{Cite web|last=Evans|first=Greg|date=April 18, 2023|title=Lary Simpson Dies: 'Bad Company' Producer, Showbiz Lawyer & Don Simpson Brother Was 77|url=https://deadline.com/2023/04/lary-simpson-dead-lawyer-bad-company-movie-don-simpson-brother-was-77-1235328605/|access-date=December 12, 2024|website=Deadline Hollywood|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Barnes|first=Mike|date=April 18, 2023|title=Lary Simpson, 'Bad Company' Producer and Don Simpson's Brother, Dies at 77|url=https://variety.com/1997/scene/vpage/lary-simpson-hangs-out-prod-n-shingle-1117342117/|access-date=December 11, 2024|website=The Hollywood Reporter|language=en-US}}

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

; As an actor

; As writer

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |author=Charles Fleming |date=April 20, 1999 |title=High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Cultures of Excess |publisher=Main Street Books |isbn=978-0385486958}}

{{Portal|Biography}}

• {{IMDb name|0800971}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Don}}

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