Jon Avnet

{{short description|American film and television director, writer and producer}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jon Avnet

| image = Jon Avnet.jpg

| caption = Jon Avnet presenting Art Directors Guild award in 2014

| birthname = Jonathan Michael Avnet

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1949|11|17}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York City

| spouse = {{marriage|Barbara Brody|1975}}

| occupation = Film director, screenwriter, film producer

| education = Sarah Lawrence College (BA)
American Film Institute (MFA)

| relatives = Charles Avnet (grandfather)

| parents =

| children = 3

| known_for = Risky Business, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Black Swan.

}}

__NOTOC__

Jonathan Avnet (born November 17, 1949) is an American director, writer and producer.

Avnet was born in Brooklyn, the son of Joan Bertha (née Grossman) and Lester Francis Avnet, a corporate executive with Avnet (a global distributor of IT & electronics){{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/85/Jon-Avnet.html|title=Jon Avnet Biography (1949-)|website=www.filmreference.com}}{{Cite news|first= Rita |last=Reif |title=Joan Avnet, Dealer, Collector and Donor Of Art, Is Dead at 80 |newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 15, 1994 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/15/obituaries/joan-avnet-dealer-collector-and-donor-of-art-is-dead-at-80.html }}{{Cite news|title= L.F. Avnet Dead; Industrialist, 57 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 4, 1970 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/04/archives/lf-avnet-dead-industrialist-57-head-of-electronics-concern-aided.html }} founded by his paternal grandfather, Charles Avnet. He has two siblings, Carole Avnet Rocherolle and Rosalind Avnet Lazarus. He attended Great Neck North High School in Great Neck, New York.[http://www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/gnps/pages/famous/famous60.html Famous Great Neck Alumni from the 1960s] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20170528070908/http://www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/gnps/pages/famous/famous60.html |date=May 28, 2017 }}, Great Neck School District. Accessed July 21, 2007. He entered the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, and he earned a B.A. degree in film and theater arts from Sarah Lawrence College in 1971.{{cite web |author= |title=Jon Avnet: Biography |url=https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800035352/bio |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410144826/https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800035352/bio |archive-date=April 10, 2008 |access-date=April 2, 2019 |publisher=Yahoo Entertainment}} He is Jewish.{{Cite news|first=Bernard|last= Weinraub |title= Television/Radio; A Seldom-Seen Holocaust Image: The Resister |newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 4, 2001 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/04/arts/television-radio-a-seldom-seen-holocaust-image-the-resister.html |quote=Have you ever seen the story of the resistance? Have you ever seen a Jew pick up a gun and kill a German in the Holocaust? asked Mr. Avnet, 51, who is Jewish. }}

Avnet addressed political issues with his fourth film Red Corner in 1997, a movie about the Chinese legal system, starring Richard Gere and Bai Ling. Because of Gere's presence and support for Tibet and the Dalai Lama, they could not film in China, and the settings had to be recreated in Southern California. Avnet, however, did film a few scenes in Beijing and also put in some footage of actual Chinese executions.