Jonah J. "Bud" Greenspan (September 18, 1926 – December 25, 2010) was an American film director, writer, and producer known for his sports
documentaries.
Career
Greenspan was born in New York City. He overcame a
lisp in adolescence and went into
sports broadcasting after graduating from
New York University.[1] In 1947 Greenspan became sports director at New York City's
WMGM, at that time the largest
sports radio station in the US, when he was 21 years old. When he left WMGM, Greenspan began contributing articles to magazines while also producing television commercials.
He dabbled in documentary filmmaking in 1952, with The Strongest Man in the World, a 15-minute feature on weightlifter
John Davis, but he began his filmmaking career in earnest in 1964, accompanying
Jesse Owens to
West Berlin to film Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin. In 1967, he formed his own film company, Cappy Productions, Inc., with wife Cappy Petrash Greenspan (deceased 1983). After his wife's death, Greenspan ran Cappy Productions with his companion Nancy Beffa.
Several hour-long productions followed. Greenspan won his first Emmy for 1976's The Olympiad, 22 hour-long documentary
specials on the Olympics (including Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin). The series was broadcast in 80 countries. In 1977, he branched into
docudrama with the two-hour
movie of the week biography of
gold-medalistWilma Rudolph. Wilma, starring
Cicely Tyson, featured
Denzel Washington in his first movie role. In 1979, he launched the first of several vignette series: This Day in Sports, which aired on CBS, featured 365 30-second film shorts highlighting exciting sports moments from years past. It was followed in 1980 by the similar Olympic Moments, Olympic Events and Olympic Vignettes.
In addition to his prolific film work, Greenspan continued working in other media. He was a
contributing editor for
PARADE magazine. He also authored a number of books, including several on the Olympics, a book of sports
bloopers called Play It Again, Bud, and We Wuz Robbed, which addresses sports controversies. Great Moments in Sports, his first album, went
gold and led him to produce 18 more
spoken word albums.
Greenspan received the
Olympic Order award in 1985, at which time
International Olympic Committee President
Juan Antonio Samaranch said, "Mr. Greenspan has been called the foremost producer, writer and director of Olympic films; more than that, he is an everlasting friend of the Olympic family."[4] In 2004, Greenspan was inducted as a "Special Contributor" into the
United States Olympic Hall of Fame. His visual and musical The Spirit of the Olympics is on display permanently at the
Olympic Museum in
Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1994, Greenspan was inducted in the
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was given the Al Schoenfield Media Award by the
International Swimming Hall of Fame. Bud Greenspan Circuit, Lidcombe, is a street in a housing development on the site the media centre at the Sydney Olympics.
Death
Greenspan died of
Parkinson's disease on Christmas Day 2010, at the age of 84 in New York City.[5]