Comments (0)Michael Lynton’s quick rise to become chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment—at 47 he’s already led divisions at Disney, Penguin/Putnam books and AOL—has subjected him to countless interviews about the performance of his companies.
But one topic Mr. Lynton has never liked to discuss is himself.
He doesn’t speak publicly about his wife and three children, he said, because they didn’t sign up for the scrutiny. And he doesn’t talk much about being Jewish because that’s not something he did growing up in The Netherlands.
“I was one of two Jewish kids in my school. We were probably one of two Jewish families in our town. And it was a really tolerant country. So it is not that you are hiding your Judaism, it is just that you don’t identify yourself as a Jew because there is no critical mass to identify with,” Mr. Lynton recalled.
“What is unusual about the United States—and it’s something that I have never gotten used to—is that Jews here, there are so many of them and they are so important to the culture,” he said.
“And they feel, rightly, so comfortable being visible and outspoken, that they identify themselves in a very prominent way in the communities they live in, whether it is the entertainment community or the banking community or whatever it is. That’s not a phenomenon you would see in Holland at all; that’s not a phenomenon I grew up with.”
But Mr. Lynton’s low-key Jewish identity got a big boost when Newsweek magazine published a list of America’s top 50 rabbis, compiled by Mr. Lynton and two friends, Gary Ginsburg of News Corp. and Jay Sanderson of JTN Productions.
Mr. Lynton also received more attention when Mr. Sanderson’s Jewish Television Network honored him with its 2007 Vision Award.
“In the world of Maimonides, it is those who do good deeds quietly and don’t look for attention, that is the highest form of tzedakah,” said JTN CEO Mr. Sanderson, using the Hebrew word for “charity.”
As part of a JTN board of directors that includes several entertainment chieftains, Mr. Lynton is helping to oversee an “explosion” at the Jewish production company.
Mr. Lynton said that he grew up in a culturally, though not explicitly religiously, Jewish home. Becoming spiritually Jewish was an outgrowth of starting a family.
“My wife really wanted my kids to go to Hebrew school. And as part of going to Hebrew school, you naturally start going to synagogue,” he said. “And one thing leads to another, and you become—I don’t know if more observant is the word—but certainly more reflective.”
The multilingual son of Dutch emigres who fled Nazi Germany in the early 1930s, Mr. Lynton was born in 1960 in London, spent a few early years in the United States and in 1969 returned to Holland.
He moved to New England for prep school, and then enrolled at Harvard University, where he received his bachelor of arts degree and returned for his MBA after a few years on Wall Street.
Disney snatched him up in 1987, and there he helped launch such imprints as Hyperion. After rising to president of Disney publishing, Mr. Lynton took over the company’s failing Hollywood Pictures division in 1994. Two years later it closed and Mr. Lynton left Los Angeles for New York, where he ran Penguin books.
After four years in publishing, he left to become president of America Online International, and after another four years he was picked by Sony to return to the studio lot—a move widely questioned by Hollywood insiders.
“I think this is it,” Mr. Lynton said. “I will stay here as long as they will have me, which hopefully will be for a long time. ‘After this’ I hope is a long time from now.”
Mr. Lynton, whose focus is on running the business while the creative leadership lies with Sony Picture Co-Chairman Amy Pascal, has quieted his critics. Sony Pictures has produced a string of successful movies, including “Casino Royale” and “Spider-Man 3,” and 2007’s last quarter profits were $26 million after losing $8.7 million a year before.
Brad A. Greenberg is a staff writer for The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.