Sheldon Lettich

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Sheldon Lettich (born January 14, 1951 in New York City , New York ) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He has both American and German citizenship. He made his debut as a director in 1990 with the action film Leon with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role. He made three more films with him and wrote some scripts for his films.

Life

Sheldon Lettich was born on January 14, 1951 in New York City. He moved to California with his parents at a young age and grew up in Los Angeles . After graduating from high school, he spent 4 years in the US Marine Corps in South Vietnam and later at Camp Pendleton , California.

He then worked as a photographer and studied at the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies. Although his original goal was to become a cameraman, while at university he became interested in writing and directing, the two areas in which he would later be successful. Based on his experiences in Vietnam, he wrote the play "Tracers" together with a group of young actors who were also Vietnam veterans. "Tracers" premiered on July 4, 1980 at the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles and later at "Joseph Papp's Public Theater" in New York, the "Royal Court Theater" in London and at the "Steppenwolf Theater" in Chicago where CSI star Gary Sinise took over the direction. The play received the " Drama Desk Award " and the "LA Drama Critics Awards" and is performed in various theaters to this day.

While working on Tracers , Lettich wrote the script for the cult film Stryker's War together with Josh Becker, in which Bruce Campbell, known from Evil Dead, and the later Spider-Man director Sam Raimi played the leading roles. This was the beginning of Lettich's career as a screenwriter, followed by the scripts for Russkies with Joaquin Phoenix and the screenplay for Jean-Claude Van Damme's big breakthrough , the martial arts film Bloodsport (1988). At the same time, Lettich was writing a screenplay in which he processed his experiences in Vietnam, which caught the attention of Sylvester Stallone , who hired him to write Rambo III (1988). The worldwide success of Bloodsport not only made Jean-Claude Van Damme a superstar, he also established a friendship between him and Lettich that continues to this day, which the director refers to in the biography on his homepage. After Bloodsport , Lettich directed Van Damme's next film, Leon (1990). The film's success led to further collaboration between the two, that of Michael Douglas co-produced action film Double Impact (1991), in which Lettich also directed. The film is still one of Van Damme's greatest hits to this day. In his reality show Behind Closed Doors (2011) you can see Van Damme and Lettich talking about a planned sequel to Concentrated Load over dinner together .

Lettich directed a number of films during the 1990s and 2000s. The best known are The Last Warrior (2001) with Dolph Lundgren , The Order (2001) with Charlton Heston and The Legionnaire (1998) and Hard Corps (2006) with Jean Claude Van Damme.

Filmography

As a director

As a screenwriter

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lettich, Sheldon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director, screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York, USA