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| Michael Bay |
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Forecourt Ceremony held on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 |
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Born: February 17, 1965, in Los Angeles, California
Age at the time of the ceremony: 52 |
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Director Michael Bay re-wrote the rules for summer blockbusters. Big, loud, some would say dumb, Bay's films have a certain kinetic energy, which audiences have rewarded with great success. You could say he is the father of the "Things That Blow Up Real Good" school of filmmaking. Love him or hate him, the films of Michael Bay have to be seen to be believed.
Harriet and Jim Bay adopted Michael as a baby. They sent him to the Crossroads School in Santa Monica. As a kid, he filled a toy train full of firecrackers and filmed the resulting explosions with his parents' regular 8 camera; the train set the some of the house on fire. The fire department was called and poor Michael was grounded.
When he was 15, Michael got to intern for director George Lucas, then prepping Raiders of the Lost Ark. Filing away the storyboards, Michael thought the film would be terrible, but upon seeing the finished film, he decided to become a director.
Bay attended Wesleyan University in Middletown Connecticut, graduating in Film and English in 1986, then studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Two weeks after graduation, Bay got a job directing commercials at the music video powerhouse Propaganda Films, where he worked on commercials for Coca-Cola, The Red Cross and the "Got Milk?" campaign. His first music video was Poco: Call It Love, released in August 1989.
Bay directed a large number of music videos for music acts like:
Areosmith,
Gregg Allman,
Chicago, Tyler Collins,
Faster Pussycat, Great White, Faith Hill,
House of Lords,
Colin James, Diana King,
Louie Louie, Richard Marx, Meat Loaf,
The Neville Brothers,
Donny Osmond, Wilson Phillips, Lionel Ritchie, Shadows of Light, Slaughter,
Styx, Tina Turner, Vanilla Ice,
Winger
and Young M.C. For Playboy, Bay directed the video Playboy: Kerri Kendall - September 1990 Video Centerfold, released in 1990.
Impressed with all of this video work, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson hired Bay to direct their cop buddy action movie Bad Boys (released in April 1995) with Martin Lawrence. The picture was a surprise hit, so Bruckheimer and Simpson got Bay to direct their Alcatraz escape movie The Rock (released in June 1996) with Sean Connery.
These films were so successful, that Bay hung up his own shingle and signed a two-picture deal with Disney. He co-produced and directed the "asteriod hits earth" actioner Armageddon (released in July 1998) with Bruce Willis; many observers thought that Bay had set new levels of explosions and loud sound effects in this film.
The same can be said for his historical romance on the events of December 7, 1941 in Pearl Harbor (released in May 2001) with Ben Affleck. Bay's Bad Boys II (which played the Chinese in July 2003) with Will Smith, is perhaps the most wild-assed movie ever made.
Bay set up another production company to remake several old horror movies in order for them to become franchises. His first was
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (released in October 2003) with Jessica Biel, then The Amityville Horror (released in April 2005) with Ryan Reynolds.
Bay produced and directed The Island (released in July 2005) with Scarlett Johansson, and was executive producer (with Steven Spielberg) as well as director of Transformers (released in July 2007) with Shia LeBeouf.
Bay produced Friday the 13th (released in February 2009) with Jared Padalecki, and was executive producer and director on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (released in June 2009). Bay produced A Nightmare on Elm Street (which played the Chinese in April 2010) with Jackie Earl Haley, and executive produced and directed Transformers: Dark of the Moon (released in June 2011).
Bay produced and directed the true crime story Pain & Gain (which had its West Coast Premiere at the Chinese on April 22, 2013) with Mark Wahlberg, and was producer of the horror movie The Purge (released in June 2013) with Ethan Hawke. Bay executive produced and directed Transformers: Age of Extinction (which played the Chinese in June 2014) with Mark Wahlberg.
Bay was producer for 54 episodes of The Last Ship with Eric Dane, aired over TNT from June 2014 to November 2018. Bay also produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which played the Chinese in August 2014) with Megan Fox. He produced 13 Hours (released in January 2016) with John Krasinski.
Bay produced the sequel The Purge: Election Year (released in July 2016) with Frank Grillo; Bay was executive producer and directed one more Transformers: The Last Knight (which played the Chinese in June 2017) with Mark Wahlberg, produced the surprise breakout hit A Quiet Place (released in April 2018) with Emily Blunt, produced another Purge movie The First Purge (released in July 2018) with Y'lan Noel,
eventually turning the concept into a television show The Purge with Gabriel Chavarria, aired over the USA Network, beginning in September 2018. His film Ambulance with Jake Gyllenhaal played the Chinese in April 2022.
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| TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Michael Bay Forecourt block. Executed by Santos Resendiz, Tuesday, May 23, 2017. 30 x 20 inches. |
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| TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Michael Bay Forecourt ceremony, Tuesday, May 23, 2017. Michael Bay gives the cameras a look as he places his hands in the wet cement. |
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