Rob Cohen

This busy producer-director of film and TV became one of Hollywood's "baby moguls" of the 1970s. At age 24, Cohen headed up the motion picture producing arm of Motown Records, overseeing some notable and/or popular black-oriented films: "Mahogany" (1975), "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings" (1976), "Scott Joplin: King of Ragtime" (1977), "Thank God It's Friday" and Sidney Lumet's notorious "The Wiz" (both 1978). At age 28, he formed his own production company and set to work on his directorial debut, "A Small Circle of Friends" (1980), a nostalgic comedy set at Harvard (Cohen's alma mater) in the 60s, starring Brad Davis and Karen Allen and more than inspired by Francois Truffaut's superior "Jules et Jim" (1962). Cohen followed with "Scandalous" (1984), a farce starring Robert Hays and John Gielgud. He also executive produced the high-minded remake of "The Razor's Edge" (1984), starring a miscast Bill Murray, and produced the teen drama "The Legend of Billy Jean" (1985).