David Valdes worked with Clint Eastwood and Francis Ford Coppola, and has helped launch the careers of a number of popular actors. Valdes served as the executive producer on Clint Eastwood's acclaimed revisionist Western Unforgiven, which won four Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture; and Wolfgang Petersen's multiple Oscar-nominated hit In the Line of Fire, starring Eastwood, Rene Russo and John Malkovich. He was also the executive producer on Eastwood's critically acclaimed biopic Bird, starring Forest Whitaker, and White Hunter, Black Heart, as well as Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War-era drama Gardens of Stone. As a producer, Valdes includes among his many film credits: A Perfect World, starring Kevin Costner; The Stars Fell on Henrietta, with Robert Duvall and Aidan Quinn; The Rookie, pairing Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen; Like Father, Like Son; and the last of the popular Dirty Harry movies The Dead Pool, which marked the feature film debuts of Jim Carrey and Liam Neeson. Valdes worked on numerous television projects, including the pilot for the innovative series "Moonlighting," starring Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis, and directed by Robert Butler. He and Butler also previously collaborated on the television projects "Sirens" and "Concrete Beat." Born and raised in Southern California, Valdes earned a Bachelor of Theatre Arts degree from U.C.L.A. He began his film career as an assistant director, working alongside such directors as Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders and beginning his longtime association with Clint Eastwood and Francis Ford Coppola. Some of the films on which he worked include Raging Bull, Hammett, Oh God! Book II, Any Which Way You Can, Sudden Impact, Tightrope, Rumble Fish and The Outsiders. He later segued into producing as an associate producer on Eastwood's Pale Rider. |