James C. Katz has built a career that balances the preservation of classic films with the creation of new ones in the world of cinema. He collaborated with Bob Harris to restore iconic movies such as Rear Window, Vertigo, Spartacus, and My Fair Lady. In addition, Katz has produced a range of films, including Paul Bartel's Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, written by Bruce Wagner, and executive produced Lust in the Dust, starring Divine and Tab Hunter. He was also the producer of Nobody's Fool, penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Beth Henley.
Katz's career began in the United Artists publicity department, where he rose to become Director of Worldwide Publicity. He was involved in the campaigns for notable films such as the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns, the James Bond movies, In the Heat of the Night, and the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night and HELP!. Later, Katz lived in Europe, where he produced and directed several documentaries, short films, and commercials, as well as co-producing the National Theatre's film production of Chekhov's Three Sisters, starring and directed by Sir Laurence Olivier.
As President and founder of the Universal Pictures Classics Division in the early 1980s, Katz oversaw the reissue of five Hitchcock films - Rear Window, Vertigo, Rope, The Trouble With Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much - as well as the reissue of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, the reissue of the Preston Sturges package, and the theatrical distribution of Abel Gance's Napoleon. During this time, he solidified his partnership with Bob Harris.
Under Katz's guidance, Universal Pictures Classics became the first classics division to be involved in film production, with John Huston's Under the Volcano. Katz was also instrumental in bringing foreign films such as Jerszy Skolimowski's Moonlighting, Merchant Ivory's Heat and Dust, Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and Franco Zeffirelli's La Traviata to U.S. audiences. Additionally, Katz served as a production VP for Universal Pictures for several years.
Katz has served on the AFI Awards selection juries for 2000 and 2001 and has been a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He is also a charter member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Los Angeles (BAFTA LA).
