Birthday profile

Jeff Kanew

Jeff Kanew, American director and screenwriter

Born
December 16, 1944
Age in 2026
82
Zodiac sign
Sagittarius
Birth year
1944

About Jeff Kanew

Jeffrey Roger Kanew (born December 16, 1944) is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and film editor who early in his career made trailers for many films of the 1970s and is probably best known for directing the film Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and for editing Ordinary People (1980). Kanew directed Gotcha! (1985) and Tough Guys (1986), the final film pairing actors Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, having initially directed Douglas in 1983's Eddie Macon's Run. His other directorial efforts include Troop Beverly Hills (starring Shelley Long), V.I. Warshawski (starring Kathleen Turner), Natural Enemies (starring Hal Holbrook and Louise Fletcher), Babij Jar, a Holocaust drama, National Lampoon's Adam & Eve, several TV episodes, and versions for the stage and video of the Kirk Douglas one-man show Before I Forget (2009). Kanew also directed the documentary Black Rodeo (1972), capturing the events surrounding the first ever performance of an all-black rodeo at Triborough Stadium on Randall's Island, New York. Kanew's son Justin Kanew is a reality show contestant from season 15 and season 18 of The Amazing Race. Justin was also the Democratic candidate for Congress in Tennessee's 7th District in the 2018 midterm election.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Jeff Kanew timeline

  1. Kanew also directed the documentary Black Rodeo (1972), capturing the events surrounding the first ever performance of an all-black rodeo at Triborough Stadium on Randall's Island, New York.
  2. Kanew directed Gotcha! (1985) and Tough Guys (1986), the final film pairing actors Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, having initially directed Douglas in 1983's Eddie Macon's Run.

The world when Jeff Kanew was born

Jeff Kanew was born in 1944. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1944

  • #1 song"Swinging on a Star" – Bing Crosby
  • Top movieGoing My Way
  • Best-selling bookStrange Fruit – Lillian Smith

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGreen Bay Packers win NFL Championship
  • Top headlineD-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6
  • Technology milestoneHarvard Mark I computer begins operations
  • Defining fadBobby socks
  • Notable inventionKidney dialysis machine
  • World population2.39 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population138.4M

1944 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Jeff Kanew's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19442026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$5,800$435,000
Average income$4,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population138.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.