David Furnish

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David Furnish bigraphy, stories - Canadian filmmaker

David Furnish : biography

25 October 1962 –

David James Furnish (born 25 October 1962) is a Canadian/British filmmaker, former advertising executive, and now a film director and producer most known for his documentary Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras. He is the civil partner of British singer Elton John.

Television

  • ‘Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…’; producer (2008)

Theater

  • Billy Elliot the Musical; executive producer (March 2005)

Life and career

David Furnish was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada to Jack Furnish (retired, former director of Bristol-Myers) and Gladys Furnish (retired, homemaker). He has an older brother, John, and a younger brother, Peter. Furnish graduated from the Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute in 1981 and received an Honours Business Administration undergraduate degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in 1985. He was recruited by the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, eventually transferred to the London, England, office and was appointed to their Board.

Furnish is co-chief of Rocket Pictures along with John. Furnish serves on the board of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, attending fundraisers and other events in support of that cause.

Furnish is a contributing editor for Tatler magazine and also is a regular columnist for Interview and GQ.

John proposed to Furnish in May 2005 at a dinner party with friends and family at one of their homes in Old Windsor. Furnish and John entered into a civil partnership on 21 December 2005, the first day that civil partnerships could be performed in England, in the town of Windsor, Berkshire. Their son Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born in December 2010 in California via a surrogate. A second son, Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, was born to the couple in January 2013.

Movies

  • Tantrums and Tiaras; director (1997)
  • Women Talking Dirty; producer (1999)
  • Desert Flower; co-producer (1999)
  • Kofi Annan: Center of the Storm; executive producer (2002)
  • Fame and Fashion: Inside Gucci – Sex and Fashion; director, script writer (2002)
  • Fame and Fashion: Inside Versace – Fame and Fashion; director, script writer (2002)
  • It’s a boy girl thing; producer (2006)
  • Pride and Predator; producer (announced 2009)
  • Gnomeo and Juliet; producer (2011)
  • The Muppets; producer (2011)