Jon Davison

A producer of comic and futuristic theatrical fare who came out of Roger Corman's New World low-budget factory, Jon Davison made a name for himself apart from Corman as producer of the comedy hit "Airplane!" (1980) and of the "Robocop" series of films. Davison studied at NYU's Film Institute where Martin Scorsese was one of his instructors. While at NYU, Davison staged film retrospectives at the famed Fillmore East in the East Village. His NYU classmate, director Jonathan Kaplan, suggested Davison move to L.A. where Davison rewrote a script for Corman which led to his becoming Corman's advertising and publicity director at New World. By 1974, Davison was an associate producer on "Big Bad Mama," starring Angie Dickinson, and later was second unit director on both "Rock 'n Roll High School" (1979) and "The Howling" (1980). Davison struck out on his own at Paramount producing "Airplane!," the first parody by the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams. Still based at Paramount, Davison produced "White Dog" (1982), about a girl (Kristy McNichol) who takes in a dog unaware it has been trained to kill African Americans, and "Top Secret!" (1984), an Elvis Presley espionage parody by the Zucker Brothers and Abrahams. After a dry spell, Davison executive produced "Robocop" (1987), the hit film about a cyborg law enforcer, and went on to produced it sequel "Robocop 2" (1990) and executive produce "Robocop 3" (1993) as well as consulting on the 1994 TV series version. Davison produced "Trapped in Paradise" (1994), with Nicholas Cage, Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey as larcenous brothers, and, in 1996 gathered some of the up-and-coming actors of the 90s (Jake Busey, Dina Meyer) to be in the cast of Paul Verhoeven's futuristic "Starship Troopers" (1997).