Early Life
Jewison was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Dorothy Irene (née Weaver) and Percy Joseph Jewison, who managed a convenience store and post office. He attended Kew Beach School and Malvern Collegiate Institute, and while growing up in the 1930s displayed an aptitude for performing and theatre. Jewison was often mistaken for Jewish due to his surname, though he and his family were actually Protestant. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy (1944–1945) during World War II, and after being discharged traveled in the American South, where he encountered segregation, an experience that would influence his later work.
Jewison attended Victoria College in the University of Toronto, graduating with a B.A. in 1949. As a student he was involved in writing, directing, and acting in various theatrical productions, including the All-Varsity Revue in 1949. Following graduation, he moved to London, where he worked sporadically as a script writer for a children's show and bit part actor for the British Broadcasting Corporation, while supporting himself with odd jobs. Out of work in Britain in late 1951, he came back to Canada to become a production trainee at CBLT in Toronto, which was preparing for the launch of CBC Television.
Read more about this topic: Norman Jewison
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Everyone in our culture wants to win a prize. Perhaps that is the grand lesson we have taken with us from kindergarten in the age of perversions of Dewey-style education: everyone gets a ribbon, and praise becomes a meaningless narcotic to soothe egoistic distemper.”
—Gerald Early (b. 1952)
“A book is a part of life, a manifestation of life, just as much as a tree or a horse or a star. It obeys its own rhythms, its own laws, whether it be a novel, a play, or a diary. The deep, hidden rhythm of life is always there—that of the pulse, the heart beat.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)