Errol Morris Net Worth
Errol Morris Net Worth is
$20 Million
Errol Morris Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
His documentaries helped spur a rebirth of non-fiction film in the 80s & garnered wide critical success. But until 2003's "The Fog of War," Morris was shunned by the Academy Awards. Morris' first two films won much acclaim (Gates of Heaven (1978) and Vernon, Florida (1981)). In the second movie, Morris intended to explore "Nub City," the town known... | Date Of Birth | February 5, 1948 |
| Place Of Birth | Hewlett, Long Island, New York, USA |
| Profession | Director, Producer, Actor |
| Spouse | Julia Sheehan (m. 1984) |
| Children | Hamilton Morris |
| TV Shows | First Person |
| Star Sign | Aquarius |
| # | Trademark |
|---|---|
| 1 | Frequent Collaborators: composer Philip Glass, cinematographers Stefan Czapsky and Robert Chappell, production designer Ted Bafaloukos |
| 2 | [Documentaries] Probing studies of human nature (The Thin Blue Line (1988), Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999), The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)). |
| 3 | [Noir] "Film Noir" stylized cinematography |
| # | Quote |
|---|---|
| 1 | [in a 1987 interview] I don't shoot like a documentary filmmaker. What I do has absolutely nothing to do with cinema verite. The idea isn't to creep up on people or use low or available light. We go in with a lot of equipment, the camera is on a tripod, and the person who speaks to the camera is perfectly aware of what is going on. In some sense, he is performing for the camera. |
| 2 | Everything that I've done has been toying with the idea of what a documentary is and what a documentary could be. When I made my first film, I made the conscious decision to take all the rules of documentary filmmaking and discard them because I hated them. [2015] |
| 3 | I filmed people on what I guess you would call 'sets.' I designed what the frames looked like. [2015] |
| 4 | If you leave people alone and don't interrupt them, within three or four minutes, they'll show you just how crazy they really are. [2015] |
| 5 | Over the years, I have been put in this very defensive position, as if I have to really defend many of the techniques that were used in The Thin Blue Line (1988). reenactments being one of them. Finally I have come up with an answer that I find somewhat satisfactory: That everything is a reenactment. Consciousness is a reenactment of reality inside of our skulls. None of us have direct access to the real world as such. And the job of nonfiction is not just simply turning on a camera and pointing it in one way or another, but in creating a relationship and the real world. [2015] |
| 6 | [an interviewing technique when dealing with a perceived untruth] In that moment, you're a chess player - you have various moves open to you. If you're creating some kind of dramaturgy, where you want to capture conflict and an altercation between a subject and an interviewer, then do you want to go down that road and ask him to explain? But if the film is an essay on what is going on inside this one man's head - Is he actually aware of what was just read to him? - well we just sit there looking at each other. |
| 7 | [on his documentary 'The Known Unknown' and perceived differences between its treatment of Donald Rumsfeld and of Robert MacNamara in the earlier 'The Fog of War'] Well, of course I'd expected there'd be invidious comparisons, because why make comparisons if they're not going to be invidious? I used to say that Genesis got it wrong and it needed to be amended, because it assumes that th Heavens are better than the Earth. So if God created the Heavens and the Earth, knowing one was better than the other, he must have first created the invidious comparison. So I would like it to read 'and God created the invidious comparison, and saw it was good. And on that basis did everything else'. |
| 8 | [on criticism of his even-handed characterization of Donald Rumsfeld's personality] I don't mean to sound defensive, though I am defensive. But not all interviews work by virtue of being adversarial. And this film - self-serving for me to say so, but I'll say it anyway - this film could never have worked as an adversarial film for many reasons. |
| 9 | [Rumsfeld has an] absolute inability to appreciate irony on any level. He exhibits endless examples of irony deficit disorder. He has, I would say, almost no awareness of himself. He's aware he needs to justify himself, he needs to explain himself - in the words of Jerfferson, he needs to give 'an account of thy stewardship' but beyond that is little or nothing. |
| 10 | It's not as though there's this hidden Rumsfeld I didn't capture. I think I captured the real Rumsfeld and its there on display. Sometimes the power of an interview - often, in my view - comes from things that are not said. |
| 11 | [re critics' question about whether he was tough enough with Donald Rumsfeld in documentary The Unknown Known (2013)] I believe yes, I was for many, many, many reasons. I look at it as a devastating portrait, a frightening portrait. Do I contradict him? Quite often. But the goal is not to endlessly contradict him. I much prefer it - I hope I am not giving away too much here - I much prefer it when he contradicts himself, which he does unendingly. |
| 12 | [re _The Act of Killing (2012)_ (qv] I think I can speak independently of my role as executive producer, because I have no financial interest in this film. The most you can ask from art, really good art, maybe great art, is that it makes you think, it makes you ask questions, makes you wonder about how we know things, how we experience history and know who we are. And there are so many amazing moments like that here. |
| 13 | One of the guards at the Wisconsin state crime laboratory at that time gave me one of the most compelling definitions of what is real. He took me into the room of [serial killer Ed] Gein artifacts and pointed to the cane chair where Ed had removed the cane and sewn in the buttocks of a woman. And without any trace of irony the guard looked at me and said, 'You can tell it's real, because you can see the asshole.' |
| 14 | Once, on the anniversary of the making of Citizen Kane (1941), I was interviewed by The New York Times. Everybody was somehow lined up to say why 'Kane' was the greatest movie of all time or, if you don't like that hyperbole, the greatest American film of all time. And I said, well no, I don't even think it's the greatest American film of all time. I think Detour (1945) is. I really like 'Detour' because it's film noir stripped bare to its essentials. |
| 15 | If everything was planned, it would be dreadful. If everything was unplanned, it would be equally dreadful. Cinema exists because there are elements of both in everything. There are elements of both in documentary. There are elements of both in feature filmmaking. It's what makes, I think, photography and filmmaking of interest. Despite all of our efforts to control something, the world is much, much more powerful than us, and more deranged even than us. |
| 16 | Ecstatic absurdity: it's the confrontation with meaninglessness. |
| 17 | I don't believe truth is conveyed by style and presentation. I don't think that if it was grainy and full of handheld material, it would be any more truthful. Oddly enough, people don't want truth. They want to avoid having to think. If anybody really thinks that truth and style are one and the same - that if you obey a set of documentary conventions truth magically pops out - well, that's not the way it works. |
| 18 | I directed one dramatic feature under really unfortunate circumstances. Someone asked me, Well why did you do this?" And I said, "Well really it's quite simple. I did this for the same reason that everybody does everything in Hollywood: vanity and greed." But I plan to go on and make others. |
| # | Fact |
|---|---|
| 1 | Morris' interest in films began at Berkeley when he found himself programming film retrospectives at the Pacific Film Archives. Douglas Sirk became a favorite. |
| 2 | When he was growing up.in Long Island, he never cared much for movies and was into "maps, stamp collecting, and trilobites.". |
| 3 | Morris has interviewed two former United States Secretaries of Defense for two of his movies: Donald Rumsfeld and Robert McNamara. |
| 4 | In the 2002 Sight & Sound poll, he listed his ten favorite films as: Detour (1945), There's Always Tomorrow (1955), Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (1956) ("A Man Escaped), The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936), Stray Dog (1949), The Rise of Louis XIV (1966), Human Desire (1954), Ace in the Hole (1951), and Psycho (1960). |
| 5 | Werner Herzog promised that he would eat his shoe if Morris ever completed Gates of Heaven (1978), which he actually did at the movie's premiere. Les Blank's short documentary Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) shows the whole story. |
| 6 | Attended the University of Wisconsin, graduating with a B.A. in history (1969). |
| 7 | Thinks of himself as a "detective director", and he did, indeed, work as a private eye in the early 1980s. |
| 8 | Name of his production company is Globe Department Store. |
| 9 | Graduated from the Putney School in Vermont (1965). |
Director
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography | 2016 | Documentary | |
| Op-Docs | 2011-2016 | TV Series documentary 5 episodes | |
| Zillow Hiram's Home | 2016 | TV Movie | |
| Being Mr. Met | 2015 | TV Movie | |
| Chrome | 2015 | TV Movie | |
| Most Valuable Whatever | 2015 | TV Movie | |
| The Heist | 2015 | TV Movie | |
| The Streaker | 2015 | TV Movie | |
| The Subterranean Stadium | 2015 | TV Movie | |
| Happy Father's Day | 2015 | Video | |
| It's Not Crazy, It's Sports | 2015 | TV Series short | |
| Leymah Gbowee: The Dream | 2014 | Documentary short | |
| Three Short Films About Peace | 2014 | TV Series short 3 episodes | |
| November 22, 1963 | 2013 | Video documentary short | |
| The Unknown Known | 2013 | Documentary | |
| El Wingador | 2012 | Documentary short | |
| The Umbrella Man | 2011 | Documentary short | |
| They Were There | 2011 | Documentary short | |
| Tabloid | 2010 | Documentary | |
| Survivors | 2008 | Short | |
| Standard Operating Procedure | 2008 | Documentary | |
| The 79th Annual Academy Awards | 2007 | TV Special opening film | |
| The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara | 2003 | Documentary | |
| The 74th Annual Academy Awards | 2002 | TV Special filmed segments | |
| First Person | 2000-2001 | TV Series documentary 6 episodes | |
| Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. | 1999 | Documentary | |
| Fast, Cheap & Out of Control | 1997 | Documentary | |
| Errol Morris Interrotron Stories: Digging Up the Past | 1995 | TV Mini-Series documentary | |
| The Dark Wind | 1991 | ||
| A Brief History of Time | 1991 | Documentary | |
| The Thin Blue Line | 1988 | Documentary | |
| Vernon, Florida | 1981 | Documentary | |
| Gates of Heaven | 1978 | Documentary |
Producer
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Lure | 2016 | Documentary executive producer completed | |
| P.O.V. | 2014-2016 | TV Series documentary executive producer - 2 episodes | |
| National Bird | 2016 | Documentary executive producer | |
| Uncle Nick | 2015 | executive producer | |
| The Look of Silence | 2014 | Documentary executive producer | |
| The Unknown Known | 2013 | Documentary producer | |
| The Act of Killing | 2012 | Documentary executive producer | |
| Tabloid | 2010 | Documentary executive producer | |
| Standard Operating Procedure | 2008 | Documentary producer | |
| The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara | 2003 | Documentary producer | |
| First Person | 2000-2001 | TV Series documentary executive producer - 2 episodes | |
| Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. | 1999 | Documentary producer | |
| Fast, Cheap & Out of Control | 1997 | Documentary producer | |
| Vernon, Florida | 1981 | Documentary producer | |
| Gates of Heaven | 1978 | Documentary producer |
Writer
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Unknown Known | 2013 | Documentary | |
| The Thin Blue Line | 1988 | Documentary |
Actor
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bride of the Orient | 1989 | ||
| Hotel New York | 1984 |
Editor
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The 74th Annual Academy Awards | 2002 | TV Special | |
| Gates of Heaven | 1978 | Documentary |
Thanks
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hitch | 2014 | Documentary special thanks | |
| Life Itself | 2014 | Documentary special thanks | |
| Mi amiga Bety | 2012 | Documentary additional thanks | |
| Surf's Up | 2007 | special thanks | |
| Eiga wa ikimono no kiroku de aru: Tsuchimoto Noriaki no shigoto | 2007 | Documentary special thanks | |
| Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe | 1980 | Documentary short acknowledgment: "Gates of Heaven" courtesy of | |
| Stroszek | 1977 | special thanks |
Self
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| In Defense of Henry | 2016 | Video documentary short | Himself |
| PoliticKING with Larry King | 2014 | TV Series | Himself - guest |
| Tavis Smiley | 2014 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| The Colbert Report | 2012-2014 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| The Independents | 2014 | TV Series | Himself - Director |
| Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch | 2014 | Himself | |
| Life Itself | 2014 | Documentary | Himself |
| The Unknown Known | 2013 | Documentary | Himself - Interviewer (voice) |
| Doc Talk | 2011-2013 | TV Series | Himself |
| Late Review | 2011 | TV Series | Himself - Interviewee |
| 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die | 2011 | TV Series documentary | Himself - Director, 'The Thin Blue Line' / Himself - Director, 'The Fog of War' |
| Charlie Rose | 2011 | TV Series | Himself - Guest |
| The Hour | 2011 | TV Series | Himself |
| Capturing Reality | 2008 | Documentary | Himself |
| Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts | 2007 | Documentary | Himself |
| Manufacturing Dissent | 2007 | Documentary | Himself - Documentary Filmmaker |
| The 50 Greatest Documentaries | 2005 | TV Movie documentary | Himself |
| The 76th Annual Academy Awards | 2004 | TV Special | Himself - Winner: Best Documentary Feature |
| The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara | 2003 | Documentary | Interviewer (voice, uncredited) |
| First Person | 2000-2001 | TV Series documentary | Himself - Host |
| A Brief History of Errol Morris | 2000 | Documentary | |
| Film-Fest DVD: Issue 3 - Toronto | 2000 | Video documentary | Himself |
| Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. | 1999 | Documentary | Himself - Interviewer (voice, uncredited) |
| Split Screen | 1997 | TV Series | Himself |
| American Cinema | 1995 | TV Series documentary | Himself |
| The Late Show | 1993 | TV Series documentary | Himself |
| The Making of 'A Brief History of Time' | 1992 | TV Short documentary | Himself - Director |
| The Media Show | 1989-1990 | TV Series | Himself |
| The Thin Blue Line | 1988 | Documentary | Himself (Interviewer) (voice, uncredited) |
Won Awards
| Year | Award | Ceremony | Nomination | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Cinema Eye Honors Award | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | The Influentials | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) |
| 2016 | Cinema Eye Honors Award | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | The Influentials | Gates of Heaven (1978) |
| 2016 | Cinema Eye Honors Award | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | The Influentials | The Thin Blue Line (1988) |
| 2015 | Cinema Eye Honors Award | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | The Influentials | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) |
| 2015 | Cinema Eye Honors Award | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | The Influentials | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) |
| 2015 | Cinema Eye Honors Award | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | The Influentials | The Thin Blue Line (1988) |
| 2014 | Cinema Eye Honors Award | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | The Influentials | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) |
| 2014 | Cinema Eye Honors Award | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | The Influentials | The Thin Blue Line (1988) |
| 2013 | Best Documentary | Bergen International Film Festival | Best International Documentary Award | The Unknown Known (2013) |
| 2009 | Career Achievement Award | International Documentary Association | ||
| 2008 | Silver Berlin Bear | Berlin International Film Festival | Jury Grand Prix | Standard Operating Procedure (2008) |
| 2004 | Oscar | Academy Awards, USA | Best Documentary, Features | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) |
| 2004 | Independent Spirit Award | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Documentary | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) |
| 2004 | LAFCA Award | Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) |
| 1999 | Career Award | DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival | ||
| 1998 | Truer Than Fiction Award | Independent Spirit Awards | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) | |
| 1998 | OFTA Film Award | Online Film & Television Association | Best Documentary Picture | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) |
| 1997 | Filmmaker Award | Gotham Awards | ||
| 1992 | Golden Space Needle Award | Seattle International Film Festival | Best Documentary | A Brief History of Time (1991) |
| 1992 | Grand Jury Prize | Sundance Film Festival | Documentary | A Brief History of Time (1991) |
| 1992 | Filmmakers Trophy | Sundance Film Festival | Documentary | A Brief History of Time (1991) |
| 1989 | Edgar | Edgar Allan Poe Awards | Best Motion Picture | The Thin Blue Line (1988) |
| 1988 | IDA Award | International Documentary Association | The Thin Blue Line (1988) |
Nominated Awards
| Year | Award | Ceremony | Nomination | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Emmy | News & Documentary Emmy Awards | Outstanding Historical Programming - Long Form | The Unknown Known (2013) |
| 2013 | Audience Choice Award | Chicago International Film Festival | The Unknown Known (2013) | |
| 2013 | Politiken's Audience Award | CPH:DOX | The Unknown Known (2013) | |
| 2013 | F:ACT Award | CPH:DOX | The Unknown Known (2013) | |
| 2013 | IDA Award | International Documentary Association | Best Feature | The Act of Killing (2012) |
| 2013 | Golden Lion | Venice Film Festival | The Unknown Known (2013) | |
| 2012 | Cinema Eye Audience Choice Prize | Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US | Tabloid (2010) | |
| 2009 | PGA Award | PGA Awards | Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures | Standard Operating Procedure (2008) |
| 2008 | EDA Award | Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Best Documentary Feature Film | Standard Operating Procedure (2008) |
| 2008 | Golden Berlin Bear | Berlin International Film Festival | Standard Operating Procedure (2008) | |
| 2008 | Amnesty Award | CPH:DOX | Standard Operating Procedure (2008) | |
| 2008 | Pare Lorentz Award | International Documentary Association | Standard Operating Procedure (2008) | |
| 2008 | Best World Documentary | Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival | Standard Operating Procedure (2008) | |
| 2004 | DGA Award | Directors Guild of America, USA | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) |
| 2004 | DGA Award | Directors Guild of America, USA | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials | For Miller: "Pager", "Alternative Fuel", Nike: "Bernard", "Kathryn" and Cisco: "Meanwhile". |
| 2004 | OFTA Film Award | Online Film & Television Association | Best Documentary Picture | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) |
| 2002 | Primetime Emmy | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special | The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002) |
| 2000 | DGA Award | Directors Guild of America, USA | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary | Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999) |
| 2000 | OFTA Film Award | Online Film & Television Association | Best Documentary Picture | Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999) |
| 1999 | Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize | Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival | Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999) | |
| 1998 | Golden Satellite Award | Satellite Awards | Best Motion Picture, Documentary | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) |
| 1989 | Critics Award | Deauville Film Festival | The Thin Blue Line (1988) | |
| 1989 | Independent Spirit Award | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Director | The Thin Blue Line (1988) |
2nd Place Awards
| Year | Award | Ceremony | Nomination | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | LAFCA Award | Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film | Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999) |
| 1988 | LAFCA Award | Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film | The Thin Blue Line (1988) |
Known for movies
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
as Director
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
as Director
The Unknown Known (2013)
as Director
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999)
as Director