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Michael Ovitz

Image: Disney

As I’m discussing in a different article this month, only a handful of people have held the title of Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. Former Hollywood power player Michael Ovitz is one of them. And the always-enthusiastic talker loves to tell the story of his upbringing.

From Ovitz’s perspective, he’s the ultimate make-good story in the movie industry. To hear him tell it, the former agent came from nothing but scratched his way to the top of the studio food chain.

In reality, Ovitz was a class president at a school where two-time Academy Award-winner Sally Field was a classmate. And billionaire Michael Milken attended, too. But the rest of Ovitz’s story checks out.

He did work part-time as a Universal Studios tour guide while in high school. On that job, he learned the importance of connections in the movie business. So, Universal helped him eventually become the head of Disney. Of course, he sucked at the job, so he might have been a double agent.

Cecilia Peck

Image: The Weinstein Company

You may know Cecilia Peck for three different reasons. For starters, she’s a Golden Globe-nominated actress for her role in The Portrait. In that film, she portrayed the daughter of Gregory Peck, so I don’t think it was much of an acting stretch. After all, she IS the daughter of Gregory Peck. That’s another way that you may know her.

Of course, Peck deserves a tremendous amount of credit for her directorial debut. She worked on Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, one of the best documentaries of the 2000s. Peck’s pretty upfront about her time at Universal. She did it specifically because she needed a union job. Yup, that’s the child of a lifelong actor right there. Practicality rules all.

Randy Pitchford

Image: Gearbox Studios

We’re talking about a different kind of celebrity now. Randy Pitchford is a titan in the videogame industry, where he’s the CEO of Gearbox Studios. That’s the company responsible for the Borderlands franchise, one of the most successful videogame trilogies of all-time.

Gearbox has sold roughly 50 million copies of Borderlands games over the years, generating billions of dollars in revenue. Of course, Borderlands games are known for their bawdy comedy and sophomoric weapons. And Pitchford’s humor is dicey enough that he’s gotten sued for several uncomfortable statements.

I don’t want to blame Pitchford’s Universal training for this. Still, he probably should have learned boundaries at some point. Then again, he’s made millions of dollars by joking about boobies and penises, so the formula clearly works for him. He’s also one of the most recognizable faces in the entire videogame industry.

 
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Comments

Don't forget Ann-Marie Johnson ....Guide in Summer, 1980.

Neither Conan O'Brien nor Jimmy Fallon were actual Universal Studios tour guides. Conan filmed segments for his shows on the tour, and Jimmy starred in videos that were played by tour guides on the tour.

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