February 2, 2000
BIRMINGHAM, AL — Academy award-winning director and cinematographer John G. Avildsen, historian Harry Milton Marks, Ph.D., and philosopher Tom Beauchamp, Ph.D., have been appointed as the UAB Jemison Visiting Professors in the UAB School of Arts and Humanities. Avildsen’s appointment is in the UAB Department of Communication Studies. Beauchamp and Marks have appointments in the Department of Philosophy. As visiting professors, the three will meet with students and participate in various activities and conferences during February.
Avildsen will hold a public screening of two of his best-known films, “Rocky” and “Save the Tiger,” 6:30 to 11 p.m. Wednesday, February 16, at the Alabama Theater, 1811 3rd Avenue North. Avildsen will give a brief lecture at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at select Bruno’s, Blockbuster Video and Sound Shop stores. To order by phone call (205) 715-6000. Tickets also can be purchased the day of the show at the Alabama Theater Box Office. The event is co-sponsored by UAB and the Southern Stories Foundation, and monies raised will go to the Southern Stories Foundation Project Support Fund to encourage and support Alabama-made films, videos and television.
Avildsen first received critical acclaim for the 1970 surprise sleeper “Joe” about a hardhat bigot. Then Avildsen directed the 1973 film “Save the Tiger,” starring Jack Lemmon as a down-on-his-luck businessman considering arson as a way out of his troubles. Lemmon received an Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance.
Avildsen went on to direct the 1976 hit “Rocky” for which he won an Academy Award as Best Director. The film won for Best Picture and led to four sequels, of which Avildsen directed “Rocky V.”
Marks holds the McGehee Harvey and Elizabeth Treide Harvey Professorship in the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. His research examines medical progress in the 20th century and post-World War II research policies. He is the author of The Progress of Experiment: Science and Therapeutic Reform in the United States 1900-1990 (Cambridge, 1997). Marks previously taught at Harvard Medical School. He also is a member of the American Association for the History of Medicine and has been a reviewer of several journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Isis and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Beauchamp is senior research scholar at the Kennedy Institute at Georgetown University. He is the author of 10 books, including The Virtuous Journalist (Oxford, 1987); Medical Ethics (Prentice-Hall, 1984); A History and Theory of Informed Consent (Oxford, 1986); and Philosophical Ethics (McGraw-Hill, 1982). He also is senior editor of The Foundations of Philosophy series, published by Prentice-Hall. Beauchamp has been an advisory board member for National Public Radio and educational television. He is the former chairman of the Committee on Medicine and Philosophy for the American Philosophical Association.