Lawrence Gordon

Gordon was born on March 25, 1936, in Yazoo City or Belzoni, Mississippi and raised in a Jewish family in Belzoni. He graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans.

After moving to Los Angeles, he began his producing career in 1964, working for Aaron Spelling, and became a writer and associate producer on the TV series Burke's Law. He quickly moved up the ranks and worked as an executive producer at ABC and at Screen Gems.

In early 1968, Gordon joined American International Pictures. In August 1969, he was named vice president for motion picture and film development. He resigned in February 1970 to form his own company. In 1971 Gordon went to Screen Gems, and he returned to AIP in January 1972 as head of production. Among the films released under his auspices were Slaughter and Boxcar Bertha. He received credit as executive producer on John Milius's Dillinger (1973).

Gordon left as worldwide production head in early 1974 to form his own company and did a deal with Columbia Pictures. Its first film was Hard Times (1975). It was written and directed by Walter Hill, who then collaborated with Gordon on a short-lived TV series, Dog and Cat. After a stint at Columbia, he moved to Paramount Pictures in the late 1970s to develop ideas, mainly for the unmade Paramount Television Service, while also working on blockbusters under the deal like The Warriors. In 1978, he had two high-grossing films with Hooper and The End, both starring Burt Reynolds. Gordon and Walter Hill were going to make The Last Gun, but the film was cancelled because of poor financing. The Warriors was created instead. In the early 1980s, he created the TV series Matt Houston. Gordon worked on multiple films in the 1970s and 1980s with fellow producer Joel Silver, most notably Streets of Fire and 48 Hrs.

In July 1984, he replaced Joe Wizan as head of production at 20th Century Fox. Two months later, he was appointed president of Fox Entertainment Group. In January 1986, he resigned as president and chief operating officer, citing poor health due to a heart condition. He was planning to reactivate Lawrence Gordon Productions in a two-year independent production deal with the studio. For three years, from 1986 until its founding of Largo Entertainment in 1989, Lawrence Gordon Productions was based at 20th Century Fox, sometimes heading under the name The Gordon Company, when he was with his brother Charles Gordon.

In 1989, he produced Field of Dreams, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. He subsequently formed Largo, backed by the Japanese company JVC. Gordon used his production company Golar (Golar, Inc.; credited in films as Golar Productions) to enter the Largo joint venture with JVC and BOH, Inc. Largo developed films that were distributed by studios such as 20th Century Fox under the "Largo Agreement". He left Largo in 1994 to sign a deal with Universal Pictures. At that time, The Gordon Company was restructured: Golar continued in tandem with Lawrence Gordon Productions (headed by Lawrence Gordon), while Daybreak Productions was headed by Charles Gordon. Both Larry and Chuck produced together one last time under the banner of The Gordon Company on Waterworld.

Gordon also had an independent production deal with Universal Pictures under the name Lawrence Gordon Productions. Under Lawrence Gordon Productions, he produced Jumpin' Jack Flash, Boogie Nights, Mystery Men, K-9, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Hellboy and its sequel The Golden Army, and Watchmen.