- Best known for the inspirational sports dramas Hoosiers (1986) and Rudy (1993), David Anspaugh has enjoyed a long career as a director and producer of film and television. Born in Decatur, Indiana in 1946 to Lawrence Anspaugh, a portrait photographer, and his wife, Marie, he was a member of his high school's football, basketball, and track teams. As a student majoring in secondary education at Indiana University, Anspaugh shot his own short movies and filmed concerts, football games, and Vietnam War protests using a 16mm camera. After graduation he moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he worked as a substitute teacher, waiter, and ski instructor before relocating to Los Angeles to attend film school at the University of Southern California. At the time he couldn't imagine ever working in Hollywood, although that would change in just a few years.
Anspaugh started his career as a producer and director of acclaimed TV shows Hill Street Blues (1981), St. Elsewhere (1982), and Miami Vice (1984). He made the transition to feature films when his best friend from IU, Angelo Pizzo, wrote "Hoosiers" and wanted Anspaugh to direct. The scene in "Hoosiers" in which the Hickory Huskers and their coach enter the enormous and empty Butler Fieldhouse was suggested by Anspaugh. Seven years later the two friends reteamed to make the college-football movie "Rudy." Anspaugh insisted on casting Sean Astin in the lead role, even though studio executives wanted someone tall and athletic. And it was Anspaugh's idea to hire NFL Films to shoot the movie's game footage. Anspaugh and Pizzo also collaborated on 1950s World Cup soccer film The Game of Their Lives (2005). Anspaugh has rounded out his career by directing motion pictures and TV movies on many topics other than sports.
In 2014 Anspaugh relocated from Santa Monica, California to Bloomington, Indiana, where he taught a class at IU, directed local theater productions, and served as an executive producer on films.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous
- SpousesRoma Downey(November 24, 1995 - March 15, 1998) (divorced, 1 child)Tamara Jan Kramer(April 13, 1974 - ?) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsLawrence AnspaughMarie DeMaio Anspaugh
- RelativesJane Jorgensen(Sibling)
- Starting as associate producer of Hill Street Blues (1981), he graduated to directing his first episode in Season 2. He almost got fired after one day. Boss Steven Bochco went ballistic when he realized that Anspaugh had only shot what he thought was a perfect single master, neglecting to capture enough coverage.
- Anspaugh contributed the idea of getting an unusual overhead shot in Personal Foul (1982) by mounting the camera above the rim during a basketball scene. This helped earn him a Directors Guild directing award for that episode.
- Directed one Oscar nominated performance: Dennis Hopper in Hoosiers (1986).
- Jack Nicholson wrote a letter of recommendation for Anspaugh's application to the University of Southern California film school.
- Directed his five-and-a-half-year-old daughter Vanessa Anspaugh in the role of Jessica Auschlander, granddaughter of Dr. Daniel Auschlander, in Fade to White (1984).
- If I hadn't cut my teeth on that kind of TV [Hill Street Blues (1981)], I would've never been able to do Hoosiers (1986). No textbook can teach you the stuff I learned on my feet. I'd come to work every day with a detailed game plan, but never executed it--everything went to hell in a handbasket in two hours. It was a crash course in learning how to think on the fly.
- For so long studios were afraid of making sports movies because they thought they would only appeal to men. But Hoosiers (1986) isn't about basketball, and Rudy (1993) isn't about football. They're about bigger things--family, community, and second chances.
- [on taking an acting class in film school] It gave me the foundation for later on, so when I finally got my opportunity to direct something, I was light-years ahead of my contemporaries.
- [on directing Hill Street Blues (1981)] During my first episode, I was so worried that I spent most every night sleeping in my office long after we wrapped. I was sitting in a living room set until 2 in the morning, trying to figure out how to shoot a scene.
- I take pride in being regarded as an actor's director. My idols are Truffaut, Bergman, Preston Sturges, John Ford, and Fellini.
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