Distinguished industry professional and professor scheduled to speak at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television commencement
GUBER
By Arit John
June 5, 2010 10:50 p.m.
With the job market being what it is now, graduates of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television would kill to apply to their first job with the sort of resume their commencement speaker can boast.
Peter Guber is an entrepreneur, producer, author and professor with 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry. He has volunteered as a professor with the UCLA Producers Program for more than 30 years.
“We consider illustrious, distinguished industry professionals (when choosing a commencement speaker),” said Teri Schwartz, the dean of the School of Theater, Film and Television.
Currently the chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group, Guber’s early career successes include being the studio chief of Columbia Pictures in the early 1970s.
Ben Harris, who lectures for and manages the UCLA Producers Program, considers Guber to be one of the industry professionals who laid the foundation for the tent-pole film formula, in which a few highly successful films sustain the studio financially. During Guber’s term, Columbia released “Taxi Driver,” “Tommy” and “Close Encounters of a Third Kind.”
He later produced “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “Sleepy Hollow” and many other box office successes.
“I think it’s really amazing what he’s done. He’s one of the people who reinvented the industry,” Harris said.
In addition to working within the entertainment industry, Guber is the co-founder and a lecturer in the UCLA Producers Program.
As a professor he has worked to inspire many students, Harris said.
“He’s an inspiring teacher. … He’s a businessman through and through, but he’s also very interested in mentoring students,” Harris said.
For some, Guber’s status as a UCLA professor may make him a less than satisfactory choice for commencement speaker, but UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Professor Emeritus Howard Suber, who taught with Guber for eight years, feels Guber’s dedication to teaching adds to his qualifications.
“He bears the title of professor, but here’s a guy who for 30 years has volunteered his time to UCLA and never been paid a penny,” Suber said. “He’s one of the most dedicated teachers we’ve ever had.”
