James L. Brooks
Birthdate: May 9, 1940
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
James L. Brooks (birthname: James Lawrence Brooks) is the rare American filmmaker who has arguably an even greater career as a TV creator/producer of some of the most successful series of all time, including The Simpsons (1989-present and still the longest-running U.S. scripted primetime series), Lou Grant (1977-1982), Taxi (1978-1983) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977). Brooks branched into features as screenwriter/producer of the comedy-drama, Starting Over (1979), based on Dan Wakefield’s 1973 novel, starring Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, and Candice Bergen under producer Alan J. Pakula’s direction, and proving a money maker for Paramount Pictures with a $35.6 million gross.
Brooks was the first and still only first-time director to win the top three Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay) as solo recipient for his acclaimed comedy-drama, Terms of Endearment (1983), based on Larry McMurtry’s 1975 novel, starring Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson, with Danny DeVito and John Lithgow, and which grossed an astounding (estimated) 20 times costs with a $165 million return for Paramount Pictures, earning eleven Oscar nominations and winning five, including Best Actress for MacLaine and Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson. Brooks had his second consecutive hit as solo director/writer/producer with Broadcast News (1987), establishing him as one of 1980s Hollywood’s most reliable adult-oriented, mass audience filmmakers, co-starring William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter, with Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, Nicholson and John Cusack, and earning over $67 million for 20th Century Fox, while receiving seven Oscar nominations (including two for Brooks) but no wins.
James L. Brooks was again director/writer/producer (producing with a partner, Polly Platt, for the first time in his features) of the comedy-drama I’ll Do Anything (1994), starring Nick Nolte, Albert Brooks, Julie Kavner, Joely Richardson, Tracey Ullman and Whittni Wright, and which was famously reconceived (and re-shot) by Brooks from a musical to comedy-drama without songs, but was Brooks’s first money-loser with a poor $10 million return for Columbia Pictures. Brooks as director/co-writer (with Mark Andrus)/producer reunited with Jack Nicholson (as lead) and returned to commercial and critical success with the comedy, As Good As It Gets (1997), co-starring Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., Skeet Ulrich and Shirley Knight, becoming the most recent movie to date to win the Best Actor and Actress Oscars for its co-stars (Nicholson and Hunt), and grossing a knockout $314 million globally for TriStar Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing.
Brooks directed, wrote, and produced the comedy-drama, Spanglish (2004), his first box office bomb, starring Adam Sandler, Téa Leoni, Paz Vega, and Cloris Leachman, and which earned a poor $55 million gross (based on estimated costs around $80 million) for producers Columbia Pictures/Gracie Films and distributor Sony Pictures Releasing. Brooks was a writer (on a team of eleven total writers) and a producer (with four others) of The Simpsons Movie (2007), the feature version of Matt Groening’s long-running TV series, with the series’ voice cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille and Albert Brooks, and which delivered a terrific $536.4 million for distributor 20th Century Fox.
James L. Brooks was director/writer/producer of the rom-com How Do You Know (2010), co-starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson, and became Brooks’s third theatrical failure with a disappointing $48.7 million gross for Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing. Brooks returned to the big screen after a fifteen year absence as director/writer/producer of the political comedy-drama Ella McCay (2025), starring Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Julie Kavner, Spike Fearn, Rebecca Hall, Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson, and marking Brooks’s return to distributor 20th Century Fox as a filmmaker since Broadcast News.
Personal life
James L. Brooks was born in Brooklyn and raised in North Bergen, New Jersey, by his parents, Dorothy and Edward (both salespeople). Edward abandoned Dorothy when she was pregnant with James, resulting in what he later described as a lonely childhood in a broken home. Brooks attended and graduated from Weehawken High School, where he was a reporter on the school newspaper. Brooks attended and then dropped out of New York University, where he was studying public relations. Brooks was married to Marianne Morrissey from 1964 to 1972, when they divorced; the couple has one daughter, Amy. Brooks was then married to Holly Holmberg from 1978 to 1999, when they divorced; the couple has three children, Cooper, Joseph and Chloe. Brooks has been married to Jennifer Simchowitz since 2024. Brooks’s height is 6’ 1”. Brooks’s estimated net worth is $550 million.
Known For
Broadcast News
(1987)
As Good as It Gets
(1997)
Terms of Endearment
(1983)
Spanglish
(2004)
James L. Brooks Movies
director
Previous (1)
- 2025 |
Ella McCay
An idealistic young woman juggles her family and work life in a comedy about the people you love and how to survive them.
actor
Previous (19)
- 2025 |
- 2023 | Albert Brooks: Defending My Life
- 2023 | Being Mary Tyler Moore
- 2022 | Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel
- 2018 | Icebox
- 2017 | The Process
- 2015 | Misery Loves Comedy
- 2010 | How Do You Know
- 2007 | Dreams on Spec
- 2007 | The Simpsons Movie
- 2004 | Spanglish
- 2001 | Riding in Cars with Boys
- 1997 | As Good as It Gets
- 1994 | I'll Do Anything
- 1989 | The War of the Roses
- 1987 | Broadcast News
- 1986 | Sundance: A Matter of Process
- 1983 | Terms of Endearment
- 1979 | Starting Over
producer
Previous (3)
- 2023 |
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Eleven-year-old Margaret moves from the city to the suburbs and starts to contemplate everything about life, friendship and adolescence. She relies on her mother, Barbara, who offers loving support, and her grandmother, Sylvia.
- 2016 |
The Edge of Seventeen
High-school life gets even more unbearable for Nadine when her best friend, Krista, starts dating her older brother.
- 1996 |
Jerry Maguire
When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former colleague.
self
Previous (1)
- 2016 |
Harry Benson: Shoot First
What we know today about many famous musicians, politicians, and actresses is due to the famous work of photographer Harry Benson. He captured vibrant and intimate photos of the most famous band in history;The Beatles. His extensive portfolio grew to include iconic photos of Muha... Read all
Facts About James L. Brooks
Shingle: James L. Brooks is the founder/owner of Gracie Films, the phenomenally successful production company behind his motion pictures and series, such as The Simpsons.
Record-Holder: Brooks is the record-holder for Emmy wins—21, including eleven for The Simpsons, three for Taxi, three for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and one for The Tracey Ullman Show (1987).
Oscar Royalty: James L. Brooks is one of only six directors who have won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted) for the same movie, which he did for Terms of Endearment, and is the only one of the six to accomplish this with his feature directorial debut and without collaborators in the three categories. The other five directors are Billy Wilder (The Apartment (1960)), Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather Part II (1974)), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)), Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men (2007)) and Alejandro Iñárritu (Birdman (2014)).
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