Anthony Thomopoulos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anthony D. Thomopoulos, is a well known in the motion picture and television industries for his innovation and achievements. Thomopoulos spent 12 years of his career at ABC, moving progressively from Vice President of Prime Time Programs, to President of ABC Entertainment, to President of ABC Broadcast Group.
[edit] Biography
The son of Greek immigrants, he grew up in the Bronx. His dad owned a restaurant, young Tony was raised as a Greek Orthodox. After a high school aptitude test marked Thomopoulos as a potential diplomat, he applied to Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. But while at the Washington university, he got interested in business instead. His first job out of college was as a mail clerk at NBC's New York headquarters. He rose rapidly from there into senior marketing jobs. His big break came in 1973, when Barry Diller hired him on at ABC to oversee prime-time programming. He was president of the entire broadcast group when he left the company in 1985 to become chairman of United Artists Pictures and supervise such productions as: Rain Man, Betrayed, Child's Play, Baby Boom, and James Bond XV. In 1989 Thomopoulos formed Thomopoulos Productions, an independent production company of both motion pictures and television programs.
From late 1991 to early 1995, he was President of Amblin Television, a division of Amblin Entertainment. He was responsible for the original placement of NBC's highly acclaimed program ER, in addition to several other successful series on network television.
In 1995, Thomopoulos joined International Family Entertainment, Inc. (IFE). His responsibilities included all aspects of programming for The Family Channel. He was named CEO of MTM Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of IFE, and was also responsible for all aspects of MTM Television and MTM Distribution.
Thomopoulos was Chairman and CEO of Media Arts Group a NYSE company from June 2001 to January 2004. He is currently founder and partner in Morning Light Productions. Thomopoulos holds a degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
He is married to Cristina Ferrare, they live in California with their two children, Arianna (born 1989) and Alexandra (born 1986). He also has three adult children from a previous marriage who reside in Los Angeles.
