David Paul Kirkpatrick

Motion picture executive who cut his administrative teeth with Paramount beginning in the 1970s and who, despite his occasionally accepting positions with other companies, has always returned to the firm where he got his start. Becoming a story analyst for Paramount after his screenplay for "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase" (1976) was produced, Kirkpatrick first gained executive experience during a brief tenure with United Artists. Upon returning to Paramount in 1982, his career really took off with a series of increasingly important positions, but again it was positions with the Weintraub Entertainment Group and several branches of the Disney company before Kirkpatrick became president of a company's motion picture division. After assuming a like position at Paramount for several years (during which he had a hand in such features as "Regarding Henry," "Dead Again" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," all 1991), he entered into a deal with Paramount to produce his own films.