Thom Mount Speaker & Booking Information

Born in Durham, North Carolina, Thomas Henderson Mount grew up in the sleepy southern town, graduating from Durham High School and, like so many of his generation, leaving home to travel across America. In 1972, he graduated with a Master's Degree in Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts.

In 1973, Mount was hired at Universal Pictures as an assistant to then Vice-President Ned Tanen. Mount oversaw the development on numerous black exploitation films and such hits as Car Wash, Which Way is Up and Bustin' Loose. After brief stints working for Roger Corman (whose Frankenstein Unbound he would later produce in 1990), Danny Selznick and Ned Tanen of MCA/Universal, Mount was given responsibility for producing low-budget films for Universal.

Proving his talent and skill, in 1974, Mount became Head of Production just one year after joining Universal. And in 1976, at the age of only 26, Mount was named President of Universal Pictures, achieving perhaps his greatest satisfaction when appointed to the position his former boss Tanen had held less than a decade earlier.

Both TIME and New York Magazine labeled Mount as one of Hollywood's new "Baby Moguls" due to his remarkably quick ascent to producing success and executive status.

By the age of 30, Mount became a force to be reckoned with at MCA/Universal and in the industry as a whole. As Head of Universal, Mount continued his line of modestly made, popular films during his eight-year reign at Universal from 1975 till the end of 1983. He became especially noted for giving chances to a considerable number of untested directors, budding writers and fledgling stars.

During his time at Universal, Mount was responsible for developing and overseeing the production of over 140 feature films, largely frivolous comedies, action films and routine horror fare, leavened with a reasonable smattering of adult drama. Films released include Car Wash (1976), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), Missing (1982) and Psycho II (1983).

For six of the eight years that Mount headed Universal, the studio tallied record earnings. Mount also headed MCA/Universal's short-lived theatrical division which helped produce such Broadway shows as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1979) and Nuts (1980).

On his own since 1983, Mount founded his own company, The Mount Company, and developed such feature films as Can't Buy Me Love (1987), which was released by Disney during the summer of 1987; Tequila Sunrise (1988), Warner's Christmas hit that year starring Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell; Bull Durham (1989) starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon; Sean Penn's first directorial effort, The Indian Runner (1991) which starred Charles Bronson, Valeria Golino and Dennis Hopper and was released through MGM; and Sidney Lumet's Night Falls on Manhattan (1996). Mount also developed a friendship and creative relationship with Roman Polanski and helmed production chores on three of the director's films: Pirates (1986), Frantic (1988) (which starred Harrison Ford) and Death and the Maiden (1994), which was first produced by Mount as a Broadway play. Directed by Mike Nichols and starring Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfuss and Gene Hackman, the play was a Broadway hit and a Tony Award winner. Roman Polanski directed the film version for Mount in Paris, starring Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley and Stuart Wilson. The film was released through Fine Line Features. In addition, Mount executive produced Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers.

The Mount Company also made music videos for The Bangles, Los Lobos, Joe Cocker, and the 2-hour CBS movie Open Admissions, starring Jane Alexander. With ABC-TV, the company produced the 4-hour miniseries Son of The Morning Star, written by E.T. scribe Melissa Matheson.

Mount was allegedly was the inspiration for the Michael Tolkin Hollywood novel The Player, which was later turned into a film starring Tim Robbins and directed by Robert Altman. He continues to produce films, write books and arrange financing for film companies.

Mount has been an adjunct professor at Columbia University and taught at Duke University under a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. He is also Co-Founder of The Los Angeles Film School.

More recently, Mount was elected and served two consecutive terms as President of the Producers Guild of America, an organization which he helped to revitalize.