Jon Peters

John H. Peters (born June 2, 1945) is an American film producer and former hairdresser.

Early life

Peters was born in Van Nuys, California, the son of Jack Peters, a cook who owned a Hollywood diner, and Helen (Pagano), who was a receptionist. He is of Cherokee (father) and Italian (mother) descent. His mother’s family owned a renowned salon on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Jack Peters died when Jon was 10 years old and Helen later remarried.

Career

As a child, Peters was recruited as an extra in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 film The Ten Commandments as one of the Jews liberated by Moses. Peters was so enthralled by the experience that he refused to wash off his makeup when returning home.

Prior to becoming a producer, Peters first joined the family hairdressing business at Rodeo Drive where he made many film industry connections. He designed a short wig that Barbra Streisand wore for the comedy For Pete’s Sake (1974); as a result, Peters and Streisand began a relationship. He later produced Streisand’s studio album ButterFly (1974) and also gained a producing credit on Streisand’s remake of A Star Is Born (1976), although the extent of his contribution has been disputed. He also worked alongside Peter Guber for the next 10 years, with whom he headed Sony Pictures from 1989 until 1991.

Superman

In the early 1990s, Peters bought the film rights to the Superman franchise from Warner Bros. In his Q&A/comedy DVD An Evening With Kevin Smith, filmmaker Kevin Smith talked about working for Peters when he was hired to write a script for a new Superman film, which was then called Superman Reborn and later Superman Lives. According to Smith, Peters had expressed disdain for most of Superman’s iconic characteristics by demanding that Superman was never to fly nor appear in his trademark costume. He also suggested Sean Penn for the role based on his performance as a death row inmate in Dead Man Walking, which he said that Penn had the eyes of a “caged animal, a fucking killer.” Peters then demanded that the third act of the film include a fight between Superman and a giant spider, to be unveiled in an homage to King Kong. Peters later produced the 1999 steampunk western action comedy Wild Wild West, the finale of which featured a giant mechanical spider.

Smith met Peters after completing a script, to which Peters instructed him to include a robot sidekick for Brainiac, a fight scene between Brainiac and two polar bears and a marketable “space dog” pet similar to the Star Wars character Chewbacca. Smith inserted them into his script, but then the project was abandoned and the script discarded.

In Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman, Peters admitted that the Superman franchise was problematic for him, stating: “The elements that I was focusing on were away from the heart, it was more leaning towards ‘Star Wars’ in a sense, you know. I didn’t realize the human part of it, I didn’t have that.”

He subsequently produced Superman Returns, the 2006 Superman film directed by Bryan Singer, and executive-produced Man of Steel, the 2013 Superman film directed by Zack Snyder. Peters was banned from the Man of Steel set by producer Christopher Nolan.

The Sandman

Peters was a producer for a planned adaptation of the Sandman comics for Warner Bros., which met with controversy. One draft script commissioned by Peters was reviewed on the Internet at Ain’t It Cool News, and was met with scorn. Sandman creator Neil Gaiman called the last screenplay that Warner Bros. would send him “…not only the worst Sandman script I’ve ever seen, but quite easily the worst script I’ve ever read.” By 2001, the project had become stranded in development hell.

In a 2005 interview, Gaiman commented: “But Sandman movies, they just got increasingly appalling. It was really strange. They started out hiring some really good people and you got Elliott and Rossio and Roger Avary came in and did a draft. They were all solid scripts. And then Jon Peters fired all of them and got in some people who take orders, and who wanted fistfights and all this stuff. It had no sensibility and it was just…they were horrible.”

Proposed autobiography

Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood blog reported on a book proposal for the autobiography of Peters, written by himself and Los Angeles writer William Stadiem. Peters reportedly intended to write about his life with Streisand and a string of other celebrity lovers. In 2009, he subsequently withdrew from the HarperCollins book deal after adverse publicity triggered by the leaking of the proposal and potential lawsuits.

Sexual harassment lawsuit

In August 2011, a Los Angeles jury ordered Peters to pay a former assistant $3.3 million after finding she was subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment during production of Superman Returns. Since 2009, Peters has been credited for four projects: two for executive producing and two for producing.

Peters was credited as one of the producers of the 2018 film A Star Is Born, but did not receive certification from the Producers Guild of America to use the “p.g.a.” designation after his credit. Director Bradley Cooper said that he had not known of the sexual harassment allegations against Peters, and Peters had not been present on the set of his film but received a producer credit because he controlled the rights to the 1976 film.

Personal life

Peters’ five marriages ended in divorce. He first was married to Henrietta Zampitella, from 1962 to 1966. Peters has a son, Christopher, with his second wife, actress Lesley Ann Warren, whom he married in 1967 and divorced in 1975 after a two-year separation.

Following a high-profile personal and business relationship from 1973 to 1982 with singer-actress-filmmaker Barbra Streisand, Peters married his third wife, producer Christine Forsyth Peters, in June 1987. Following the couple’s separation two months later, Christine Forsyth Peters adopted daughters Caleigh Peters, who grew up to be a film-industry executive, and Skye Peters, who became a film producer. Jon Peters did not file for divorce until 1993. With fourth wife Mindy Williamson, whom he met in May 1994, married in 2001 and divorced in 2004 before resuming a relationship from 2006 to 2009, he has daughter Kendyl Peters.

Streisand is godmother to one or more of his daughters.

On January 20, 2020, Peters married model-actress Pamela Anderson. The marriage certificate was not filed and the couple separated after 12 days as the marriage was not legally binding.

Filmography

Producer unless otherwise noted.

Film

As an actor

Makeup department

Miscellaneous crew

Music department

Thanks

Television

As an actor

Thanks

Further reading

• Griffin, Nancy; Masters, Kim (1996). Hit & Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80931-1.