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Reuben Cannon

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Filmmaker

The Resume

    (February 11, 1946- )
    Born in Chicago, Illinois
    Film producer and casting director
    Head of television casting for Universal Studios (1970-78) and Warner Brothers (1977-78
    Started his own casting agency in 1978 (Reuben Cannon & Associates)
    Worked on the films 'The Color Purple,' ‘A Soldier’s Story,’ 'Dancing in September,' 'Love Don't Cost a Thing,' 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman,' 'Why Did I Get Married?' and 'Meet the Browns'
    Worked on the television series Moonlighting, Ironside, Rockford Files, Greatest American Hero and A-Team

Why he might be annoying:

    He shares a name with Nick Cannon’s musician brother, leading some to incorrectly report that they are related.
    There’s been an ongoing Rashomon dispute between himself and Oprah over how she ended up getting cast in the role of Sofia in The Color Purple.
    Allegedly, when Oprah called months after her audition, he either said: ‘What are you calling me for? You don’t call me. I call you. And we have real actresses [up] for this part. Alfre Woodard just left my office. She’s a real actress. You have no experience’ (Oprah’s version) or he said ‘Why are you calling me? I’ll call you when it’s time, and when I know.’ (Reuben’s version).
    There’s a similar dispute as to whether it was Steven Spielberg who called her at a fat farm in Wisconsin to tell her ‘If you lose one pound you could lose this role’ (Oprah’s version) or if he himself called her and told her the same thing (Reuben’s version).
    He and Oprah continued to hash this out as late as 2011, at a taping for the final season of her show and it remains unclear what really happened.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He regularly works with Tyler Perry.
    He gave Bruce Willis his big break.
    He cast Michael J. Fox in his first American TV role.
    He was the first black casting director in Hollywood.
    He has cast nearly 100 television series, made-for-TV movies, and feature films.
    He won the Artios Award for Best Casting for Feature Film—Drama for ‘The Color Purple.’
    He can’t be expected to remember the specific details of a single phone conversation he’d had over twenty years ago.
    He worked with Alex Haley on casting Roots: The Next Generations.

Credit: BoyWithTheGreenHair


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