Renny Harlin

Vocation

Lifestyle

Family

Finnish film maker, an expatriate to Hollywood to direct and produce films. The son of parents in the medical profession, Rennie nonetheless determined by the time he was 12 and discovered a home movie camera that he wanted to make movies. As a young film school grad, he set up his own production company to make commercial shorts, but found it a tough market trying to persuade someone to bankroll a feature. Relocating to Hollywood, he finally realized his goal in 1986 by directing his first feature film, "Born American." In 1990, his direction of "Die Hard 2" gave him a taste of action films but his simultaneous release of "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" turned it into a lesson of "win-a-few, lose-a-few." Filmland’s press reported on the "once-promising" and "washed-up" Harlin. Rennie’s response came in 1993 with the successful "Cliffhanger," starring Sylvester Stallone. He continued his up and down career with the panned swashbuckler "Cutthroat Island" in 1995. From the latter, he at least won the star, Geena Davis, to whom he was happily married until fathering a baby with another actress. Harlin made his debut as a producer in 1991 with "Rambling Rose." He has also completed production on "Deep Blue Sea" and "Blast From the Past." Link to Wikipedia biography