Barry Spikings (born 23 November 1939) is a British film producer who worked in Hollywood. Spikings is best known as a producer of the film The Deer Hunter (1978), which won five Academy Awards.

Biography

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Spikings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire. After leaving Boston Grammar School he joined the local newspaper, the Lincolnshire Standard, as a trainee reporter. Later he joined the Farmers' Weekly, where he won a Golden Ear award for a fifteen-minute film that he produced and directed himself.

Spikings then moved to the entertainment world. Initially, he promoted pop music festivals and later films.

British Lion and EMI

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In 1972, he became the co-owner of British Lion Films; Spikings later joined EMI when it took over British Lion.[1] For the film, The Deer Hunter (1978), Spikings won an Academy Award for Best Picture. The film also garnered awards for several of its actors.[2]

Nelson Holdings

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In 1985, Spikings formed a Canadian company, Nelson Holdings International, with British financier Richard Northcott, to purchase entertainment firms. Nelson later acquired the home video assets of Embassy Pictures from Coca-Cola and film production companies Galactic Films and the Spikings Corporation, and formed Nelson Entertainment.[3][4] Nelson had the North American home video rights and all international rights to the output from the newly-formed Castle Rock Entertainment.[5]

Spikings served as president of Nelson Entertainment through the early 1990s. Afterwards, he formed a production partnership with Eric Pleskow.[6]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ "A film script for the City". The Independent. 20 October 1996. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  2. ^ Biskind, Peter. "The Vietnam Oscars". The Hive. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  3. ^ Seideman, Tony (16 August 1986). "$85 mil buys Embassy." Billboard (p. 102).
  4. ^ "Archives - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. 6 August 1986.
  5. ^ A film script for the City Griffiths, Ian. The Independent 20 Oct 1996: 7.
  6. ^ "Pleskow, Spikings partner for pix". 14 October 1992.
  7. ^ "IMDb - Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas". IMDb. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
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