Rick McKay

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**Rick McKay**

Born:	August 30, 1960 Natick, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation:	film director, author, historian, lecturer
Website:	www.rickmckay.com

Rick McKay (born August 30, 1960) is an American film director, author, historian and lecturer and lives in New York City. McKay is the award-winning Producer/Director/Writer/Cinematographer of the hit film “Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There.” For five seasons he was a segment producer on WNET13’s City Arts, the most honored, locally produced show in television history, which won over 30 Emmy awards. Rick also produced the first story commissioned for the critically successful national series Egg: The Arts Show, garnering another two Emmy nominations as well as helping to create the opening segment of two recent national Tony Awards broadcasts. Rick won three of the industry’s prestigious Telly awards for his television work, has produced episodes for the immensely successful series “Biography” on the Arts and Entertainment network, and has produced for HBO and United Artists.

Rick is also the sole owner and proprietor of Second Act Productions, the production company that produced the feature film “Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There” “Broadway: The Golden Age” has won over 15 film festival awards to date, is on 17 critics’ Top Ten Films of 2004 lists and was a hit in theatres around the country. The DVD is bestseller as an RCA/BMG release and the film premiered on US television on PBS in March 2006 as one of their most successful pledge drives ever. Two sequels to the film are already in production with Robert Redford, Liza Minnelli, Glenn Close, Alan Cumming, Liev Schreiber and 100 other stars.

McKay’s documentary, Fay Wray: A Life is due out in 2008 with Fay Wray, Rick McKay, Naomi Watts, Peter Jackson and others as part of the cast. Rick also produced, directed and shot “Elaine Stritch: At Liberty” for Egg: The Arts Show. Much of this footage was also used to make the Pennebaker/HBO documentary of the same name, which won Elaine Stritch the 2004 Emmy award, for which Rick is credited as producer and cinematographer. Rick’s first solo film project was “Birds of a Feather,” a documentary of his adventures searching for drag queens for the legendary director Mike Nichols to help him make his hit film Birdcage. Rick is also an award-winning print journalist with numerous magazine and newspaper articles to his credit. His story “Birds of a Feather” won him San Francisco’s Cable Car Award for Outstanding Journalist for feature reporting.

McKay lectures all over the world and was honored at the Sundance Film Festival by PBS and inducted into the PBS Producers Academy, as one of their “best and brightest documentary producer/directors” for his continuing independent film and television work. Rick has also been honored with the “Special Contribution to Film” Award from Stonybrook Film Festival and the “Limelight Award” from Ojai Film Festival. In November 2006, Rick was honored with the “New England Theatre Conference Special Award” for his Contribution to the American Theatre. His wealth of experience in film, television, live entertainment, and journalism has made Rick McKay one of the most prolific and well-rounded independent producer/director/writers working in the industry today.

[edit] List of films

Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2004)
King Kong (2005) - (Special Thanks)
RKO Production 601: The Making of 'Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World' (documentary) - Interview (Fay Wray) (2005)
Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (projected for 2008)
Fay Wray: A Life (projected for 2008)
Broadway: The Next Generation (projected for 2009)