Mark Damon Dies: ‘Monster’ Film Producer, Sales Executive & Spaghetti Western Actor Was 91

Armando Tinoco
·2 min read
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Mark Damon, a film producer, sales executive, and spaghetti Western actor, died at 91, representatives for the executive told Deadline on Sunday night.

Damon, born Alan Harris in Chicago, started his career in Hollywood in 1956 after signing a contract with 20th Century Fox. After starring in House of Usher, Damon won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. The film was directed by Roger Corman, who died on Thursday.

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Damon would move to Italy and star in films like The Reluctant Saint (1962), The Young Racers (1963), The Shortest Day (1963), Black Sabbath (1963), 100 Horseman (1964), Secret Agent 777 (1965), Dio, Come Ti Amo! (1966) and Johnny Oro (1966).

he first entered the world of independent sales and production in the 1970s while living and working in Italy where he saw a large market of independent international distributors eager for top American movies. He evolved from acting to film production and, in 1977, founded the Producers Sales Organization to sell American films to international distributors. He is credited with helping to create a vibrant sales market for indie movies.

In 1993, he founded MDP Worldwide, which would be renamed Media 8 Entertainment in 2003. As a producer, Damon received multiple Oscar nominations, including winning an Academy Award in 2005 for Monster. Other films he produced include Das Boot, The NeverEnding Story, The Upside of Anger, 9 1/2 Weeks, 8 Million Ways to Die, Short Circuit, The Choirboys, The Lost Boys, The Jungle Book, The Musketeer, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt and many more.

After leaving Media 8, Damon founded Foresight Unlimited in 2005, a film, production, financing and sales company. There, he helped steer the financing for movies including 2 Guns, starring Denzel Washington and Mark Walhberg, and Lone Survivor, starring Wahlberg and directed by Peter Berg. The latter went on to gross $125 million at the U.S. box office. In 2019, it was sold to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.

Damon’s last film as a producer was in 2019’s war drama The Last Full Measure, directed by Todd Robinson. The film starred Sebastian Stan, Christopher Plummer, William Hurt, Ed Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Fonda and LisaGay Hamilton among more.

Damon was one of the original founding members of International Film and Television Alliance (IFTA). He received his M.B.A. and B.A. degrees from UCLA. In May 2008, his biography From Cowboy to Mogul to Monster was published, chronicling his 50 years in the entertainment industry.

Mark Damon, circa 1956
Mark Damon, circa 1956

Andreas Wiseman contributed to this report.

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