Biography
Joel Freeman was an American film producer and production executive. Born in Irvington, New Jersey, he began his career at MGM as a messenger in the 1940s and worked as an assistant director and production supervisor on numerous films, including Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and Camelot (1967). He was the nephew of MGM production head Dore Schary and served in the US Air Force during the Second World War with the First Motion Picture Unit.
As a producer, Freeman is best known for Shaft (1971), for which he received the NAACP Image Award as Producer of the Year. He also produced or executive-produced The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), Love at First Bite (1979), The Octagon (1980) and Soapdish (1991). He received a Directors Guild of America award for his work on Bad Day at Black Rock and a lifetime membership award from the Producers Guild of America.
Freeman died in Sherman Oaks, California, in 2018.
