Jerry Bruckheimer is a film and television producer born on September 21, 1943 in Detroit. He graduated from high school in 1961 before it was moving to Arizona. He started his career in 1968 to produce television commercials and advertising for the firm BBD&O in New York.
He left the commercial industry, and branched out into film production and served as associate producer for Dick Richards on the films Greenhorn (1972) and Rafferty und die wilden Mädchen (1975). He started out his production company Jerry Bruckheimer & Associates and then served as producer on the following two films Fahr zur Hölle, Liebling (1975) and Marschier oder stirb (1977) before the duo broke up.
He then became an independent producer, serving his job on his films Ein Mann für gewisse Stunden (1980), Terror in Brooklyn (1980), Der Einzelgänger (1981), Katzenmenschen (1982) and Küss mich, Doc (1982) throughout the early 1980s, for one of their major studios.
In 1979, Don Simpson met Bruckheimer while working on "American Gigolo" for Paramount. In 1982, Simpson left Paramount Pictures to start out its own independent company with a deal at Paramount, and weeks later, Simpson's production services were merged with Bruckheimer's. During his lifetime, he produced films in the 80s and 90s for Paramount like Flashdance (1983), Nachts werden Träume wahr (1984), Beverly Hills Cop - Ich lös' den Fall auf jeden Fall (1984) and its sequel Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Top Gun (1986) and Tage des Donners (1990), most of them met with success.
After the minor failure of "Days of Thunder", Simpson and Bruckheimer severed its ties with Paramount, and signed a deal with The Walt Disney Studios. In the mid 90s, both Simpson and Bruckheimer produced No Panic - Gute Geiseln sind selten (1994), Bad Boys - Harte Jungs (1995), Crimson Tide - In tiefster Gefahr (1995), Dangerous Minds - wilde gedanken (1995) and The Rock: Fels der Entscheidung (1996). In 1995, Simpson and Bruckheimer terminated its relationship, and the next year Simpson died.
Bruckheimer expanded its activity on television with a deal at Touchstone Television. He produced two shows Dangerous Minds - Eine Klasse für sich (1996) for ABC and Die Schattenkrieger (1997) for Rysher Entertainment and TV affiliates and two telepics Max Q: Emergency Landing (1998) and Swing Vote - Die entscheidende Stimme (1999), both for ABC.
The next few Bruckheimer productions after Simpson died in the late 90s and the early 2000s were Con Air (1997), Armageddon - Das jüngste Gericht (1998), Der Staatsfeind Nr. 1 (1998), Nur noch 60 Sekunden (2000) and Coyote Ugly (2000). In 1998, he established Technical Black Films to produce the film Gegen jede Regel (2000). In 1999, his Bruckheimer production company signed a deal with Ridley Scott and Tony Scott's Scott Free Productions to produce films over a two year period.
In 2000, Bruckheimer hit big with CSI: Vegas (2000). The success of the show led to spinoffs CSI: Miami (2002), CSI: New York (2004) and CSI: Cyber (2015). He followed the franchise up with the reality show Das große Rennen (2001), of which it is also an success made Bruckheimer a major producer for the CBS network. In 2001, he signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television to produce TV shows. He followed up his TV career with Without a Trace - Spurlos verschwunden (2002) and Cold Case - Kein Opfer ist je vergessen (2003).
In 2001, he produced two war films Pearl Harbor (2001) and Black Hawk Down (2001). The former received negative critical reaction, and the latter gained them critical acclaim. He followed up in 2002 with Bad Company - Die Welt ist in guten Händen (2002). Throughout the 2000s, Bruckheimer was an active entertainment producer, working on the films Kangaroo Jack (2003), Die Journalistin (2003), King Arthur (2004), Spiel auf Sieg (2006), Déjà Vu - Wettlauf gegen die Zeit (2006), Shopaholic - Die Schnäppchenjägerin (2009) and G-Force - Agenten mit Biss (2009) for Disney Studios, and the TV shows Profiles from the Front Line (2003), Skin (2003), E-Ring - Military Minds (2005), Just Legal (2005), Close to Home (2005), Justice: Nicht schuldig! (2006), Eleventh Hour - Einsatz in letzter Sekunde (2008), Dark Blue (2009) and The Forgotten - Die Wahrheit stirbt nie (2009).
He is the creative force for franchise films. In 2003, he made a sequel to his "Bad Boys", Bad Boys II (2003) and Bad Boys for Life (2020), and he launched the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, starting with Fluch der Karibik (2003), and spawning sequels like Pirates of the Caribbean - Fluch der Karibik 2 (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean - Am Ende der Welt (2007), Pirates of the Caribbean - Fremde Gezeiten (2011) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazars Rache (2017) and the "National Treasure" franchise, comprising of two films Das Vermächtnis der Tempelritter (2004) and Das Vermächtnis des geheimen Buches (2007).
In 2007, he had to partner with MTV to create a game studio, and joined the ZeniMax board of directors. In 2009, he launched Jerry Bruckheimer Games, and by 2011 rumored to be worked on three titles, before it was shut down in 2013.
By the 2010s, he was in declining force, and his films Prince of Persia: Der Sand der Zeit (2010), Duell der Magier (2010), Lone Ranger (2013), Operation: 12 Strong (2018) and Gemini Man (2019) are turned out to be box office disappointments, and his TV shows Miami Medical (2010), Chase (2010), The Whole Truth (2010), Hostages (2013), Training Day (2017) and Council of Dads (2020) turned out to be failures after one season.
In 2013, he signed a deal with Paramount Pictures to produce follow-up films to "Top Gun" and "Beverly Hills Cop" and their deal with Disney ended. Three years later, he terminated its deal with Warner Bros. Television and a year later signed with CBS Television Studios. His minor box office success rolled in with Erlöse uns von dem Bösen (2014). His only big TV hits came in from the decade were Lucifer (2016) and L.A.'s Finest (2019).
Bruckheimer was named as one of the investors of a proposed sports arena in Las Vegas, and had been rumored to be the leading choice by the National Hockey League (NHL) to own an expansion hockey team that would play in the arena. Bruckheimer was also named as one of the investors of a proposed Seattle-based NHL expansion team whose application was submitted in early 2018. The NHL Board of Governors voted to approve the team, named the Seattle Kraken, on December 4, 2018, which will start play in the 2021-22 season. Jerry Bruckheimer was part of an investment group that also included Tim Leiweke (Oak View Group) and David Bonderman (minority owner NBA's Boston Celtics).
He is currently on post-production on the sequel to his 1986 film "Top Gun", Top Gun: Maverick (2022) for Paramount Pictures.
