Zack Norman

{{Infobox artist

| name = Zack Norman

| image = Zack Norman aka Howard Zuker at the Palm Beach International Film Festival.jpg

| caption = Norman at the 2012 Palm Beach International Film Festival

| birth_name = Howard Jerrold Zuker

| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1940|5|27}}

| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2024|4|28|1940|5|27}}

| death_place = Burbank, California, U.S.

| alma_mater = Vanderbilt University, Harvard Business School

| occupation = Actor, comedian, film producer, art collector

}}

Howard Jerrold Zuker (May 27, 1940 – April 28, 2024), known professionally as Zack Norman, was an American actor, comedian, film producer, and art collector. He was best known for his acting role as the cousin of Danny DeVito's character in 20th Century Fox's Romancing the Stone (1984).{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/41997/Romancing-the-Stone/cast |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131218222917/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/41997/Romancing-the-Stone/cast |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-12-18 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |publisher=Baseline & All Movie Guide |title=Romancing-the-Stone - Cast, Crew, Director and Awards - NYTimes.com |access-date=2013-02-07}}

As an art collector, Norman sold a Jean-Michel Basquiat piece for a then record-breaking $110.5 million in 2017.https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/29/film-star-zack-norman-died-aged-83-20742256/

Legit theatre and stand-up comedy

Born in Boston on May 27, 1940, and raised in nearby Revere, by the age of 25 Norman was on the board of directors of a Massachusetts bank.

Norman began performing as a stand-up comedian in strip joints and nightclubs while producing his first Off-Broadway play, the New York premiere of John Arden's Live Like Pigs,{{cite web|url=http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=3903 |title=Lortel Archives-The Internet Off-Broadway Database |publisher=Lortel.org |access-date=2013-02-07}} which opened on June 7, 1965. In 1966, he left for Europe to work the U.S. Army base circuit operating out of Frankfurt, Germany, playing army clubs throughout Western Europe. On June 7, 1967, Norman opened at the Playboy Club in London, England, where Variety wrote he was "hysterical... one of the funniest guys ever to cross these shores".{{Cite web |title=Variety Magazine Archives {{!}} Hollywood History - Variety Ultimate |url=https://varietyultimate.com/archive/issue/WV-08-28-1968-53 |access-date=2022-07-28 |website=varietyultimate.com}} Soon he was appearing in every Playboy Club on their 18-venue circuit, as well as appearing in hotels and nightclubs such as The Flamingo in Las Vegas and New York's Copacabana with the Temptations. Norman made his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on April 28, 1969.{{Cite web | url=http://www.mrpopculture.com/files/html/apr22-1969/ |title = Facts/History/Trivia/Music - Year in Review Video Timeline - 1955 Through 2013}} As a stage actor, he starred in more than 20 plays. His performance in the title role of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Stamford Center for the Arts in Connecticut (1980) was locally acclaimed."[http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%2010/Yonkers%20NY%20Herald%20Statesman/Yonkers%20NY%20Herald%20Statesman%201980%20Grayscale/Yonkers%20NY%20Herald%20Statesman%201980%20a%20Grayscale%20-%200122.pdf Brecht Play a Vital Tour De Force]", Gannett Westchester Newspapers, Section B, page 5, Thursday, May 29, 1980

Motion pictures

In May 1969, Norman traveled to the Cannes International Film Festival in France to put deals together for movie projects. As Howard Zuker, he had developed a film fund financed by a group of Boston real estate investors based on tax ramifications related to the real estate business, i.e. amortization and depreciation, which could be translated into tax incentives for motion picture investment.{{cite news|last=Sloane|first=Leonard|title=New Backers for Movies – Business, not 'Going Hollywood', is their Motive|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1970/11/22/102288872.pdf|access-date=June 3, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=November 22, 1970}} Norman applied these to his fund, formed Gemini Pictures International, with himself as president.{{cite news|last=Adams|first=Marjory|title=Brookline actor forms own film company|url=https://secure.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/1934849492.html?FMT=AI&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+18%2C+1970&author=&pub=Boston+Globe+(1960-1979)&desc=Brookline+actor+forms+own+film+company|access-date=June 3, 2013|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=January 18, 1970}} The company's first release was the Italian-made Which Way Do You Dig? (also known as Dark of the Day; And the Bombs Keep Falling, and I Cannoni Tuonano Ancora), in which he also co-starred alongside spaghetti western actor Robert Woods.{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/160982?view=cast |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219064041/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/160982?view=cast |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 19, 2013 |title=BFI | Film & TV Database | I CANNONI TUONANO ANCORA (1969) |publisher=Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |date=April 16, 2009 |access-date=2013-02-07}} Over the course of his career, Norman would go on to act in and produce scores of movies, raising in excess of $100,000,000 for motion picture production, most notably with French producer Henry Lange, with whom he made over a dozen films{{cite web |author1=Variety Staff |title=Henry Lange |url=https://variety.com/2002/scene/people-news/henry-lange-1117875138/ |website=Variety |access-date=February 24, 2020 |date=October 30, 2002}}— including the 1971 vampire lesbian cult hit, Daughters of Darkness—and with Bert Schneider: Hearts And Minds (Warner Bros., 1974), The Gentleman Tramp (1976), and Paramount's 1977 Tracks, directed by Henry Jaglom who would become Norman's most frequent moviemaking partner.{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/50668/Tracks/details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123230036/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/50668/Tracks/details |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-01-23 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |publisher=Baseline & All Movie Guide |title=Tracks|access-date=2013-02-07}}{{cite web|title=Zack Norman Interview by Henry Jaglom|url=http://www.henryjaglom.com/rainbowfilms/zack.htm}} As producer and actor, Norman collaborated with Jaglom on Sitting Ducks (1980),{{cite web |last1=Canby |first1=Vincent |title=Screen: An Engaging 'Sitting Ducks':A Caper by Amateurs |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1980/04/04/archives/screen-an-engaging-sitting-ducksa-caper-by-amateurs.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=February 24, 2020 |date=April 4, 1980}} Venice, Venice (1992),{{cite web |last1=Maslin |first1=Janet |title=A Tale of Two Cities In a Movie Maker's Life |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/28/movies/a-tale-of-two-cities-in-a-movie-maker-s-life.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=February 24, 2020 |date=October 28, 1992}} Babyfever (1994),{{cite web |last1=Maslin |first1=Janet |title=Review/Film; A Bunch Of Women Discussing Motherhood |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/04/movies/review-film-a-bunch-of-women-discussing-motherhood.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=February 24, 2020 |date=May 4, 1994}} Hollywood Dreams (2005),{{cite web |last1=Catsoulis |first1=Jeannette |title=Movie Memories and Gender Confusion |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/25/movies/25holl.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=February 24, 2020 |date=May 25, 2007}} Irene in Time (2009),{{cite web |last1=Catsoulis |first1=Jeannette |title=A Foray Into Female Obsessions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/movies/23irene.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=February 24, 2020 |date=September 22, 2009}} Queen of the Lot (2010),{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/movies/03queen.html| work=The New York Times | first=Jeannette | last=Catsoulis | title='Queen of the Lot,' a Henry Jaglom Sequel – Review | date=December 2, 2010}} and Festival in Cannes (2001), for which Norman received favorable reviews.{{cite web |last1=Foundas |first1=Scott |title=Festival in Cannes |url=https://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/festival-in-cannes-1200553011/ |website=Variety |access-date=June 6, 2020 |date=November 2, 2001}}

In 1998, Norman acquired the catalog of the American Play Company (founded 1889) for himself and actor-producer Michael Douglas for their newly formed joint venture, the American Entertainment Holding Company (AEHC),{{cite web|title=AEHC Business Summary|url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapld=866304|publisher=Businessweek.com|access-date=June 8, 2012}} which controlled the rights to thousands of plays and manuscripts by such authors as John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Oscar Wilde, A.A. Milne, and Maurine Dallas Watkins. In 2008, Norman initiated a lawsuit against Douglas; the two settled out of court, dissolving the partnership.{{cite web|title=Michael Douglas sued by Zack Norman|url=http://thebosh.com/archives/2008/04/michael_douglas_sued_by_zack_norman.php|publisher=Thebosh.com|access-date=June 3, 2013}}{{cite web|title=EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS: Michael Douglas Sued For Fraud By Former Business Partner|url=http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/01/exclusive-documents-michael-douglas-sued-fraud-former-business-partner/|publisher=radaronline.com|access-date=June 3, 2013}}

In 2006, Variety's Elizabeth Guider wrote of Norman: "There are people through the decades who become regular fixtures in the pages of Variety—everyone from Al Jolson to Jimmy Durante to Michael Ovitz to Harvey Weinstein. But no one's presence has been as constant as that of Zack Norman." The reason for this, she wrote, is that in the 1980s he regularly bought ads promoting himself on page 6 of the newspaper.{{cite web |last1=Guider |first1=Elizabeth |title=Aspiring thesp turned cash into quirky cachet |url=https://variety.com/2006/scene/people-news/aspiring-thesp-turned-cash-into-quirky-cachet-1117937393/ |website=Variety |access-date=June 6, 2020 |date=February 5, 2006}}

He appeared in Ragtime (1981) and Cadillac Man (1990).{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/7802/Cadillac-Man/cast |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131218222812/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/7802/Cadillac-Man/cast |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-12-18 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |publisher=Baseline & All Movie Guide |title=Cadillac-Man - Cast, Crew, Director and Awards - NYTimes.com |access-date=2013-02-07}} He was also seen as Kaz Naiman in Paramount Classics' Festival in Cannes (2001).{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/257798/Festival-in-Cannes/cast |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131218222917/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/257798/Festival-in-Cannes/cast |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-12-18 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |publisher=Baseline & All Movie Guide |title=Festival-in-Cannes - Cast, Crew, Director and Awards - NYTimes.com |access-date=2013-02-07}}

In 1986, Norman co-wrote and co-produced Chief Zabu which was also his directing debut. He appears in the film as a real estate mogul.{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-20-ca-16879-story.html |title=$200,000 ‘ZABU’ JOINS HIGH-PRICE LAUGH DERBY |last=Chase |first=Donald |date=July 20, 1986 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=April 10, 2023}} The film was not completed for release until 30 years later. It was panned by critics who found it "uneven" and "ineptly produced".{{cite news |last1=Kenny |first1=Glenn |title=Cult Film and In-Joke Hits the Comedy Clubs |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/movies/once-a-mystery-science-theater-in-joke-now-playing-comedy-clubs.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=30 November 2018|date=August 16, 2017 }}Michael Rechtshaffen, [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mini-chief-zabu-review-20161024-snap-story.html "The dusted-off comedy 'Chief Zabu' falls flat, even with a politically ambitious N.Y. developer"], Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2016.{{cite book |title=Return to Paradise: A Guide to South Sea Island Films |last=Langman |first=Larry |date=1998 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=301 |isbn=9780810832688 |quote=Real estate salesmen Allen Garfield and Zack Norman, who make a deal with Polynesian island chief Manu Tupou, face multiple problems in this ineptly produced comedy.}}

Norman's E.N.T.E.R. won Best Comedy in October 2018 at the first Cutting Room International Short Film Festival in NYC.{{cite web |url=https://thecuttingroomnycisff.com/2018-winners/ |website=Cutting Room International Short Film Festival |publisher=Cutting Room |access-date=29 November 2018|title=2018 Winners – the Cutting Room International Short Film Festival }} As a painter, he is known as Zack Zuker, having done his first painting in New York City in 1976. He made his television debut in 1953 at the age of twelve on WBZ-TV Boston's Community Auditions talent show as a drummer with his band, Howie Zuker and His Music Makers. Subsequently he guest-starred in such popular series as The A-Team (1985) and Baywatch (1993), had a recurring role on The Nanny (1993–1995){{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/person/52994/Zack-Norman/filmography |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131218222812/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/52994/Zack-Norman/filmography |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 18, 2013 |title=Zack Norman - Filmography - Movies & TV - NYTimes.com |date=January 18, 2007 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |publisher=Baseline & All Movie Guide |access-date=2013-02-07}} and was featured in several TV movies including At Home with the Webbers (1993).{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/121905/At-Home-With-the-Webbers/cast |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131218222806/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/121905/At-Home-With-the-Webbers/cast |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-12-18 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |publisher=Baseline & All Movie Guide |title=At-Home-With-the-Webbers - Cast, Crew, Director and Awards - NYTimes.com |access-date=2013-02-07}} As Howard Zuker, he produced more than forty motion pictures, including Hearts and Minds (1974),Easy Riders And Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind, published 1998 by Simon & Schuster, p. 187 {{ISBN|0 684 80996-6}} which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.{{cite news| url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2004/06/17/movies/17HEAR.html?_r=0 | work=The New York Times | first=Sarah | last=Boxer | title=Finding Echoes of Iraq War in a Film About Vietnam | date=June 17, 2004}}

Fine art collector

Norman was an art collector, counting among his acquisitions five pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose “Untitled” sold in May 2017 at Sotheby's New York for $110.5 million, setting the then record price for an American artist at auction.{{cite web|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat painting scores record $110.5M at auction|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/05/18/jean-michel-basquiat-painting-auction/101862120/|publisher=USA Today|access-date=19 May 2017}} In 1982, Norman purchased “Hannibal” from Basquiat in the artist's studio for $3200. That piece sold on October 9, 2016, at Sotheby's London for £10.6 million.{{cite web|last1=Freeman|first1=Nate|title=Sotheby's Contemporary Sale Nets $59.6 M., Beating High Estimate, With $13.1 M. Basquiat Leading the Way|url=http://www.artnews.com/2016/10/07/sothebys-59-6-m-contemporary-sale-becomes-frieze-weeks-biggest-auction-with-a-13-1-m-basquiat-leading-the-way/|publisher=Artnews|access-date=19 May 2017|date=October 7, 2016}}

Death

Norman died from bilateral pneumonia related to COVID-19 on April 28, 2024, in Burbank, California, at the age of 83.{{cite news |last1=Barnes |first1=Mike |title=Zack Norman, Actor in ‘Romancing the Stone’ and Henry Jaglom Films, Dies at 83 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/zack-norman-dead-romancing-the-stone-1235882909/ |access-date=29 April 2024 |publisher=The Hollywood Reporter |date=29 April 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Alex |title=Zack Norman, actor who juggled multiple professions, dies at 83|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/zack-norman-actor-who-juggled-multiple-professions-dies-at-83/ |access-date=5 June 2024 |website=The Seattle Times |date=26 May 2024}}

Filmography

= Film acting =

E.N.T.E.R. (2018)
Chief Zabu (2016)
Director’s Commentary: Terror of Frankenstein (2016)
Ovation (2016)
The M Word (2013)
Queen of the Lot (2010)
Irene in Time (2009)
Emma Blue (2008)
Hollywood Dreams (2006)
Festival in Cannes (2001){{cite news|title=Zack Norman Filmography|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/52994/Zack-Norman/filmography|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225140135/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/52994/Zack-Norman/filmography|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 25, 2013|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=The New York Times|publisher=Baseline & All Movie Guide|date=2013|access-date=February 1, 2014}}
Has Been (1998)
Get a Job (1998)
Crosscut (1996)
Mojave Moon (1996)
Babyfever (1994)
Lucky Ducks (1993)
Venice, Venice (1992)
Cadillac Man (1990)
America
Romancing The Stone (1984)
Ragtime (1981)
Sitting Ducks (1980)
Fingers (1978)
Tracks (1977)
Gums (1976) (non-Sex role as reporter 'Norm Ginggold').
Touch Me Not (1974)
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me (1971)
Which Way Do You Dig? (1969)
Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)

= Television acting =

The A-Team (Double episode, 1985)
Az aranyifjú [The Golden Boy] (1986, Hungarian TV movie)
The Flash (1 episode, 1991)
At Home with the Webbers (1993)
Baywatch (1 episode, 1993)
Lush Life (1993)
Az áldozat [The Victim] (Hungarian TV documentary, 1994)
The Nanny (3 episodes, 1993–1995)

References

External links

{{IMDb name|0635649}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20151208184039/http://www.henryjaglom.com/rainbowfilms/zack.htm Zack Norman interview]

Category:1940 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:21st-century American male actors

Category:American film producers

Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in California

Category:Harvard Business School alumni

Category:Male actors from Boston