About Gerald W. Abrams
Gerald W. Abrams has produced over 70 films. He is best known for Houdini (2014), Nuremberg (2000), and Family of Spies (1990). Houdini is Cable Television's top rated Miniseries of 2014.Abrams has been nominated for two Emmys, the most recent was for Nuremberg, a dramatized account of the war crime trials following the defeat of Nazi Germany in WWII. Nuremberg was a four-hour mini-series for Turner Network Television starring Alec Baldwin and Christopher Plummer and directed by Yves Simoneau. Premiered in July 2000, the film was one of the highest rated cable mini-series in history; it received three Golden Globe nominations, a PGA Award nomination and four Primetime Emmy nominations; it won the award for Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie and Brian Cox won for the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance. The film also won 4 Gemini Awards (Canada's equivalent of the Emmys) out of several nominations.Abrams graduated from Penn State University and began his television career with WCBS-TV as an account executive. He worked his way up through CBS Television national sales to head the West Coast Sales. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed general sales manager of KCBS-TV, the CBS-owned station in Los Angeles.In 1976, Abrams executive produced The Secret Life of John Chapman. The film starred Ralph Waite, Susan Anspach and Richard Arnold. It is the true story of John Chapman, a college president who took a sabbatical and went out and got a job as a general laborer, to try to experience life outside his well-ordered but insulated college environment. The Secret Life of John Chapman was produced for CBS and generated a 44 share.The Defection of Simas Kudirka was executive produced by Abrams in 1978. It is based on the true story of the attempted defection in 1970 by a Lithuanian seaman seeking political asylum in the United States. Kudirka was denied asylum and returned to the Soviets, charged with treason, and sentenced to ten years of hard labor. It was later discovered and verified that his mother had been born in Brooklyn and gone to Lithuania at a young age, which meant she was a U.S. citizen. As a result, Kudirka was declared a U.S. citizen and in 1974 released by the Soviets. The Defection of Simas Kudirka was nominated for five Emmys; David Lowell Rich won for Outstanding Directing in a Special Program, and John A. Martinelli won for Outstanding Film Editing for a Special.Abrams formed his own company, Cypress Point Productions, in 1978. Through Cypress Point, he executive produced Letters From Frank, starring Art Carney and introducing Michael J. Fox, The Gift, starring Glenn Ford and Julie Harris, Act Of Love, starring Ron Howard and Mickey Rourke, Berlin Tunnel 21, starring Richard Thomas and Horst Buchholz, Marian Rose White, starring Katherine Ross and Valerie Perrine, the CBS series Cutter To Houston, starring Alec Baldwin, Found Money, starring Dick Van Dyke and Sid Caesar, Scorned And Swindled, starring Tuesday Weld, Florence Nightingale, and the Emmy Award-winning A Woman Called Golda, starring Ingrid Bergman for Operation Primetime.[3]Flesh & Blood was executive produced by Abrams in 1979, starring Tom Berenger, Denzel Washington, and John Cassavetes. The film is about a convict that takes up boxing in prison, which brings a new meaning to his life. Once out, his trainer motivates him to become a professional boxer. He cares about only two other things, his ...