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Douglas Urbanski, biography For 25 years the name Douglas Urbanski has represented first class and quality in the arts. For over a decade he and his companies dominated the New York, London and Los Angeles stage with productions receiving over two-dozen Tony Award nominations, several Evening Standard Awards, Olivier Awards, the Los Angeles Ovation Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. His films have received British Independent Film Awards, Cannes Festival prizes, The Broadcast Critics Award, Academy Award nominations, and British Academy Awards. He is the recipient of the British Academy Award for Outstanding British film and helped create and oversee the most successful advertising campaign in the history of automobile advertising. He is the Chairman of a group of companies: DMG, an artists management operation; THE SE8 GROUP, an independent motion picture production company; DMG MEDIA CONSULTANTS, a firm specializing in media strategies on a confidential basis for celebrities, corporations, and those in political life. He represents the most successful independent film franchise in the history of motion pictures, Crocodile Dundee in all areas, including merchandizing. --------------------------------------- film Films produced by
Douglas Urbanski include: THE CONTENDER, starring Gary Oldman, Jeff
Bridges, Joan Allen, Christian Slater, and Sam Elliot (two Academy Award
Nominations, winner Special Excellence Award from the Broadcast Film Critics
Association); NIL BY MOUTH, written and directed by Gary Oldman
(official selection in the main competition Cannes Film Festival, winner Best
Actress Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, five British Academy Award
Nominations, winner Out standing British Film at the British Academy Awards,
winner Best Screenplay at the British Academy Awards, Six Nominations of
British Independent Film Awards, winner of three British Independent Film
Awards, winner of the Edinburgh Festival Channel Four Directors Prize; Douglas
Urbanski received the British Academy Award for Best Picture); NOBODYS BABY,
starring Gary Oldman, Skeet Ulrich; TIPTOES which stars Gary Oldman,
Kate Bekinsale, Patricia Arquette, and Mathew McConaughey; Mr. Urbanski also Executive produced the
Polygram film PLUNKETT & McCLANE, starring
Robert Carlyle.
Currently he is preparing the feature films Joe Buck (Gary Oldmans follow up to Nil By Mouth), LEO & MIKE (the story of the friendship between
Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo), and also a film about the Whittaker Chambers/Alger Hiss event, and
also a film about Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. ----------------------------------------- theatre He
has presented plays on Broadway and in London by Tennessee Williams,
Harold Pinter, Noel Coward, William Shakespeare, Herman Wouk, Anthony
Shaffer, Anton Checkov, Michael Frayn, Peter Ustinov, Eugene O'Neill, William
Congreve, George Bernard Shaw, and the teams of Kaufman & Hart and Jerome
Kern & Oscar Hammerstein;
with players such as Peter O'Toole, Glenn Close, Sam Waterston, Richard
Chamberlain,
Blythe Danner, Geraldine Page, Sir Peter Ustinov, Charleton Heston, Jack Lemmon,
George Rose, Vanessa Redgrave, Sir Rex Harrison, Lynn Redgrave, Claudette
Colbert, Dustin Hoffman, Dame Maggie Smith, Jeremy Brett, Glenda Jackson, Dame Joan
Plowright, Judith Ivey, Timothy Dalton, Donald O'Connor, Fred Gwynne,
Jack Weston, Sir Alec Guinness, Edward Herman, Sir Ian McKellan, Sir Derek
Jacobi, Lauren Bacall, Liza Minelli, and Luciano Pavarotti. Douglas Urbanski and his companies and partnerships (Douglas
Management, Ltd., DMG, Triumph Productions) have had first class stage
productions in New York (on Broadway and Off), London, Washington D. C.,
Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Detroit, Denver, Houston, Palm Beach,
Fort Lauderdale, Denver, Baltimore, Seattle, and Sydney, Australia. A listing
of productions includes: TONY N TINAS WEDDING; BLITHE SPIRIT by
Noel Coward, starring Geraldine Page, Richard Chamberlain, Blythe Danner,
Judith Ivey; WILD HONEY by Michael Frayn, starring Sir Ian McKellan, Kim
Cattrall, Kate Burton (Winner, Evening Standard Award, Best Play, 4 Olivier
Awards); THE CAINE MUTINY COURT MARSHAL by Herman Wouk, starring Charleton
Heston, Ben Cross; SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH
by Tennessee Williams, starring Lauren Bacall, director Harold Pinter (London),
Michael Blakemore (Los Angeles, Australia); BENFACTORS by Michael Frayn,
starring Glenn Close, Sam Waterston, Simon Jones, Mary Beth Hurt, directed by
Michael Blakemore (Winner Best Play, New York Drama Critics Circle Award); THE
WAY OF THE WORLD by William Congreive, starring Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Joan
Plowright, directed by William Gaskill (Winner of the Evening Standard Award
for Maggie Smith as best Actress); ARENT WE ALL? By Frederick Lonsdale,
starring Sir Rex Harrison, Claudette Colbert, Lynn Redgrave, Jeremy Brett,
George Rose (Special New York Drama Desk Award); THE ASPERN PAPERS, by Michael
Redgrave, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve, Dame Wendy Hiller,
directed by Sir Michael Redgrave; LONG DAYS JOUNEY INTO NIGHT by Eugene
ONeill starring Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Peter Gallagher, directed by
Jonathan Miller; VETERENS DAY by Donald Freid, starring Jack Lemmon, Michael
Gambon, directed by Harold Pinter; THE APPLE CART by George Bernard Shaw,
starring Peter OToole, Susanah York; A WALK IN THE WOODS by Lee Blessing
starring Alec Guinness, Edward Herman, directed by Richard Eyre; RICHARD II by
William Shakespeare, starring Sir Derek Jacobi and RICHARD III also starring
Sir Derek Jacobi, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE by William Shakespeare starring Dustin
Hoffman, directed by Sir Peter Hall; ORPHEUS DECSENDING by Tennessee Williams,
starring Vanessa Redgrave, directed by Sir Peter Hall; STRANGE INTERLUDE by
Eugene ONeill, starring Glenda Jackson, Edward Petherbridge, Brian Cox, James
Hazeldine; A WOMAN OF INDEPENDENT MEANS by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, starring
Barbara Rush; BEETHOVENS TENTH by Peter Ustinov, starring Sir Peter Ustinov,
Fritz Weaver, George Rose; WHODUNNIT by Anthony Shaffer, starring Jack Weston,
George Hearn, Hermoine Baddely, Barbara Baxley, John Glover, Fred Gwynne,
directed by Michael Kahn; SHOW BOAT, by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein,
starring Donald OConnor, Dale Kristen, Caren Culliver, Lonnette McKee, Houston
Grand Opera, directed by Michael Kahn; HOW I GOT THAT STORY by Amlin Grey,
starring Bob Gunton, Don Scardino; SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACIE by Ralph Pape,
directed by Austin Pendeleton. While still a student at NYU in 1978 he presented a young group of actors in Chicago in their first commercial endeavor. They called themselves the Steppenwolf Actors, and the play was SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACIE. The cast included the unknown actors Glenne Headly, Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney, John Malkovich, Joan Allen. The production won several Joseph Jefferson Awards. Douglas Urbanskis theatre career began as
a student in the Drama Department at New York University during the late
1970s. During this time the most
remarkable faculty for theatre ever assembled were his teachers; they included Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, Lee
Strasberg, Nikos Psacharopoulos.
Immediately after graduating from NYU, he became an assistant to the
General Manager of a production of GETTING OUT by Marsha Norman at the famed
Theatre DeLys. Very soon thereafter he
became a partner in the most active Theatre management and consulting firm of
the day, Buckley & Urbanski.
Together they general managed a fleet of Broadway productions and also
specialized in General Management Services, Arts Consultation, and Producing
Industrial productions for Radio City Music Hall; also during this time they
functioned as the Co-Managing Directors of the METROPOLITAN CENTER/WANG CENTER
FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS in Boston. A lasting contribution to the Boston
cultural scene, Douglas Urbanski convinced Dr. Wang to make a major
contribution to the Metropolitan Center that resulted in a major
restoration/updating, and also a name change to the famed theatre. Buckley
& Urbanski presentations in Concert included Liza Minnelli, Luciano
Pavarotti. ---------------------------------------- other
In 1991 he became the Founder and owner of
DMG, a talent management/consulting firm representing world-class actors,
writers, directors. In 1996 he founded, with Gary Oldman, the indie film
production company, SE8 Group, which produced all of the films listed in this
bio. As the owner of DMG Media Consultants, he advises a wide variety of
clients regarding media relations and marketing; he helped devise the most
successful automobile advertising campaign in history (for which a Mobius Award
graces his desk); his media relations consultations have included corporations,
those in high profile public life (including those in the political arena) and
even a country.
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