John Herzfeld

John Herzfeld (born August 22, 1948) is an American film and television director, screenwriter, actor and producer. His film, [Don King Only in America] received two Golden Globe nominations, winning one Golden Globe, and winning John Herzfeld, the Director's Guild award, and two Emmys. Herzfeld's feature credits began with his first feature film he wrote in 1979,Voices romantic drama and character driven story overcoming communication barriers, family expectations, and personal disabilities to achieve artistic dreams.Amy Irving portrays a deaf school teacher that is swept up in a romantic relations ship with a Rock Star, Micharl Ontkean.

Voices, Two of a Kind, 2 Days in the Valley (1996), 15 Minutes (2001, and Reach Me 2014, and Escape Plan: The Extractors (2017). He has also directed numerous made-for-television movies, including The Ryan White Story (1989), The Preppie Murder (1989), Casualties of Love: The "Long Island Lolita" Story (1993) and Don King: Only in America (1997), which won a Golden Globe and nominated for an Emmy and won the DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Specials. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for directing the 1980 ABC Afterschool Special titled Stoned.

Early life Herzfeld was born on August 22, 1948, in Newark, New Jersey and grew up in West Orange, New Jersey. His father, who ran a small maintenance company, had a great love of movies, theater and ballet, and exposed his children to the arts as often as he could.

Career

ABC Afterschool Specials Herzfeld began his directing career with two ABC Afterschool Specials. He won a Daytime Emmy for best directing in children's programming for his work on the 1980 film Stoned, the story of a shy, bullied high school student (played by Scott Baio) who becomes involved with marijuana. He also won the first annual "Scott Newman Drug Abuse Prevention Award" for his writing on Stoned. In addition to writing and directing, Herzfeld also played the part of a concerned teacher in Stoned. A Father's Revenge (1988): Herzfeld directed this thriller about German terrorists kidnapping an airplane crew, starring Brian Dennehy and Ron Silver. The Ryan White Story (1989): Herzfeld wrote and directed this biographical drama about 13-year-old hemophiliac and AIDS victim Ryan White starring Lukas Haas, Judith Light and Sarah Jessica Parker. The Preppie Murder (1989): Herzfeld wrote and directed this crime drama based on the Central Park murder of Jennifer Levin by Robert Chambers, a heavily publicized murder that became known as the "Preppie Murder" case. William Baldwin starred as Chambers with Lara Flynn Boyle portraying Levin. Casualties of Love: The "Long Island Lolita" Story (1993): Herzfeld wrote and directed this dramatization of the Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco story starring Alyssa Milano as Fisher and Jack Scalia as Buttafuoco. Remember (1993): Herzfeld wrote and directed this adaptation of the Barbara Taylor Bradford novel starring Donna Mills, Stephen Collins and Ian Richardson.

2 Days in the Valley In 1996, Herzfeld returned to feature films as the director and screenwriter of the crime thriller 2 Days in the Valley with an all-star cast that included Danny Aiello, Jeff Daniels, Teri Hatcher, Charlize Theron, Keith Carradine, Eric Stoltz, Marsha Mason, James Spader, Paul Mazursky and Louise Fletcher. The film was Charlize Theron's feature film debut.

Herzfeld described the movie, which follows ten characters over 48 hours in the San Fernando Valley, as follows: "The movie is about a lot of people who either never achieved their goals, or screwed up their lives, or dropped the football the first time it was thrown to them. What a lot of characters share in common is this unrealized potential."

When the press kit and advance newspaper stories for 2 Days in the Valley depicted Herzfeld as "a first-time feature filmmaker" moving from the small screen to the big screen, the Los Angeles Times published a story focusing on the omission of Herzfeld's earlier work on Two of a Kind.

Don King: Only in America In 1997, Herzfeld directed Don King: Only in America, a biographical dramatization of the life of boxing promoter Don King aired by HBO. The film starred Ving Rhames as King and Jeremy Piven in a supporting role as closed-circuit promoter Hank Schwartz. The film received much critical success winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, as well as the Directors Guild of America's DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Specials. At the time, Herzfeld described his goal for the film:"I'm trying to tell the tale of a full-rounded character--comes from a dark past, lives in a dark world where there's always clouds overhead and somehow when the ground separates underneath him, he always seems to jump over it and never fall in. ... And how he does that and who props him up and what and when, that's what the movie's all about."

15 Minutes Herzfeld also wrote and directed the 2001 feature 15 Minutes pairing Robert De Niro and Edward Burns. Herzfeld wrote at the time that he intended the film as a study of the country's fascination with celebrity—thus the title's reference to Andy Warhol's famous quote about "15 minutes of fame." The film received a mixed review from the Los Angeles Times, which noted:"Like many ambitious, provocative films, 15 Minutes is a bit of a mess. Both audacious and unwieldy, exciting and excessive, this dark thriller is too long, too violent and not always convincing. But at the same time, there's no denying that it's onto something, that its savage indictment of the nexus involving media, crime and a voracious public is a cinematic statement difficult to ignore."

Later works From 2004 to 2006, Herzfeld returned to television, writing and directing multiple episodes of the Rob Lowe series, Dr. Vegas.

In 2007, Herzfeld directed the crime thriller The Death and Life of Bobby Z starring Paul Walker and Laurence Fishburne. Walker plays a prisoner offered a deal by the DEA in which he can win his freedom by impersonating a legendary drug dealer as part of a prisoner exchange.

In 2008, he wrote and directed the made-for-television feature SIS, about the Special Investigation Squad, an elite secret police force that hunts down criminals on the streets of Los Angeles.

In 2009, Herzfeld directed the 90-minute documentary Inferno: The Making Of The Expendables for his friend Sylvester Stallone. The two first worked together in 1969 on a low-budget self-produced film called Horses, and later again on Cobra, where Herzfeld plays a goon that Stallone's character sets on fire during the film's climax.

In 2014 Herzfeld directed feature film Reach Mewhich included a stellar cast including Sylvester Stallone, Kyra Sedgwick, Thomas Jane, Terry Crews, Danny Aiello, Kelsey Grammar, Lauren Cohan, Omari Hardwick, David O'Hara, Nelly, Cary Elwes, Kevin Connolly, Tom Bergener, Tom Sizemore, Danny Trejo, Rebekah Chaney, Frank Stallone, Scarlet Stallone, Ryan Kwanten, Meadow Williams. An anonymous motivational book gains massive internet attraction bringing together a diverse group of troubled individuals with interconnected lives. Produced by Seraphim Films Productions, Herzfld's wife, Rebekah Chaney's company. Chaney applied for the CA Tax credit in 2011 and received the funding in 2012, with only 90 days allotted for pre-production or the credit would be awarded to another production. Chaney and Herzfeld started the process together before any cast members were assigned. Chaney is the original first producer of the film Reach Me.

In 2019 John Herzfeld wrote and directed Feature Film Escape Plan: The Extractors starring Sylvester Stallone, Dave Bautista, 50 Cent, Jin Zhang, Daniel Bernhardt. Security team must rescue kidnapped hostages from a formidable Latvian prison known as Devil's Station. The film became a massive hit on streaming services frequently entering Netflix Top 10 rankings.

2026 Herzfeld wrote feature film SPECIMEN. Herzfeld is set to Direct the feature Specimen in 2027 and is currently in Pre Production.

Filmography

Film Year Title Credited as RoleNotesActorDirectorProducerWriter 1974 Death Wish Train Mugger Uncredited 1976 Cannonball Sharpe 1978 Youngblood Social Worker 1983 Two of a Kind 1986 Cobra Cho 1996 2 Days in the Valley 2001 15 Minutes 2007 The Death and Life of Bobby Z 2014 Reach Me 2019 Escape Plan: The Extractors

Television Year Title Credited as RoleNotesActorDirectorProducerWriter 1980 A Rumor of War The Drill Instructor miniseries ABC Afterschool Special: "Stoned" Doug 1981 ABC Afterschool Special: "Run, Don't Walk" 1987 Daddy TV movie 1989 The Preppie Murder TV movie The Ryan White Story Florist TV movie 1993 Remember Tom Eddy TV movie Casualties of Love: The "Long Island Lolita" Story TV movie 1997 Don King: Only in America TV movie 2004 Dr. Vegas creator 2008 SIS TV movie 2010 Inferno: The Making of 'The Expendables' TV movie