About this episode
Podcast guest 323 is Stephen Simon. Stephen produced such acclaimed projects as the Academy Award winning What Dreams May Come (starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr.), Somewhere in Time (Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour), and All The Right Moves (Tom Cruise). Stephen was also co-executive producer on fan favorites Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (Keanu Reeves), produced the first original film to premiere on the Internet (Quantum Project), starring John Cleese and Stephen Dorff, was an executive producer on Linda McCartney for CBS Television, and was nominated for an Emmy Award as one of the executive producers of Homeless to Harvard for Lifetime Television. Stephen was the head of production of the film companies owned by legendary Hollywood producers Ray Stark (Funny Girl, The Goodbye Girl, The Way We Were) and Dino De Laurentiis (Serpico, La Strada, 3 Days of The Condor). Stephen also directed and produced Indigo and the film version of Conversations with God. In 2004, Stephen co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle, a monthly DVD distribution service that became an immediate international success from 2004-2020. Stephen’s first book, The Force is With You, was published by Hampton Roads in 2002, his second book Bringing Back The Old Hollywood was published in 2011, and he co-authored his latest book What Dreams Have Come: Loving Through the Veil with his wife Lauren....after she transitioned to the other side of the veil. Stephen was born into a successful Hollywood family. His father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a producer/director who made films with stars such as Abbott and Costello, Lana Turner, and Red Skelton. He worked as both a producer and an executive at Columbia Pictures under the legendary Harry Cohn, producing films such as Born Yesterday, the 1950 film that garnered a Best Actress Oscar for star Judy Holliday. Sylvan Simon died when Stephen was four years old, an event which compelled Frank Sinatra to become Stephen’s “godfather”.