Joe Roth

Biography

Joe Roth (born June 13, 1948, in New York City) is an American film producer and director best known for his long career as a studio executive and for overseeing a string of large-scale Disney fantasy and adventure films in the 2000s and 2010s, including Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent. He worked at the top of Hollywood's studio system for much of the late twentieth century before turning mainly to independent and producer-led work.

Roth grew up on Long Island and studied communication at Boston University. In the late 1980s he co-founded Morgan Creek Entertainment with James Robinson, a company that scored hits with Young Guns and Major League. In 1989 he became chairman of 20th Century Fox, where he presided over box-office successes such as Home Alone and Die Hard 2. After a short spell at Caravan Pictures, he ran the Walt Disney Studios from 1994 to 2000, a period that included backing While You Were Sleeping. He then founded Revolution Studios and later set up his own production company.

As a director, Roth made comedies and dramas such as Coupe de Ville and America's Sweethearts, though his output as a filmmaker is modest compared with his producing work. From the mid-2000s he concentrated on big-budget fantasy and action films, among them Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Oz the Great and Powerful, The Huntsman: Winter's War and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. In 2007 he became majority owner of the Seattle Sounders FC soccer club, a stake he handed over in 2015.

His legacy rests largely on bridging traditional studio filmmaking and franchise fantasy, and his productions remain widely seen on television and streaming. He continues to work as a producer, with recent titles including The Gray Man.

Key films

• While You Were Sleeping (1995), directed by Jon Turteltaub, with Sandra Bullock; Roth served as producer.
• Alice in Wonderland (2010), Tim Burton's Disney version, a major box-office hit.
• Maleficent (2014), which retells the Sleeping Beauty story from the villain's point of view.
• Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), a darker revision of the fairy tale.
• Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), a Disney prequel to The Wizard of Oz.
• America's Sweethearts (2001), a romantic comedy Roth directed.