A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for 'Tina Turner , was also hugely successful, making Bay the director du jour.
Received a post-graduate degree in Film at Pasadenas Art Center College of Design in California.
Owns two English Mastiff dogs, named Grace after the character played by Liv Tyler in Armageddon and Bonecrusher after the Decepticon that appeared in Transformers . His bullmastiff Mason Rock Bay named the character Sean Connery played in the The Rock ) died of old age in 2007.
"Movieline" revealed in 2001 that Bays father is John Frankenheimer. Frankenheimer, who always denied paternity, took a DNA test in the 1980s which was negative.
Shot over 1 million feet of film for Pearl Harbor . Used only about 20,000 feet for the final, 9-reel cut.
In Bad Boys , Bay paid $25,000 (one quarter of his fee) for the climax explosion scene. The initial shot was made impossible by a rainstorm, and the production company refused to pay for another try.
Joined Propaganda Films two weeks out of graduate school. He befriended actor Djimon Hounsou , who was working across the street at a modeling agency. Djimon Hounsou later appeared in The Island .
All his films up to and including Armageddon made him the youngest director to reach the billion dollar mark world wide.
Since the age of 26, Bay has won every major commercial directing award, including the Gold and Silver Lions at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He also won the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year for his "Got Milk/Aaron Burr" commercial, which also won him the Museum of Modern Art Award for Best Campaign of the Year.
Filmed the movie Armageddon with an eye towards Middle America. Has a love for Americana.
Studied under film historian Jeanine Basinger at Wesleyan University; Basinger later provided audio commentary, along with Bay, for the Pearl Harbor DVD. Filmmakers Ruben Fleischer , Joss Whedon and Benh Zeitlin are also Wesleyan graduates.
He is a very close friend of writer/director George Lucas from whom he often seeks advice. As a teenager, he worked at ILM in the storyboard department for films like Raiders of the Lost Ark .
He is a very good friend to Don Michael Paul and even lent him some aerial shots from The Rock to Pauls movie Half Past Dead .
Ranked #47 on Premieres 2005 Power 50 List. Previously ranked #54 in 2004.
He filmed the dynamic shots of the thrown dice in the gambling scenes for Adrian Lyne s Indecent Proposal . He later "repossessed" the shots for a montage in Armageddon .
President of The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness, also known as The Institute, a commercial and music video production company he founded with Scott Gardenhour.
The Rock is his favorite of the films he has directed and Sean Connery is his favorite actor that hes ever worked with.
Two of his films, Armageddon and The Rock , are in the Criterion Collection.
Uses a Mark V directors viewfinder while shooting a film. The viewfinder is often prominently featured in photographs of him, hung around his neck. It is engraved with his name and the names of every film he has directed.
Was offered the chance to direct Red Dragon but turned it down. Job went to Brett Ratner.
Michael was adopted when he was two weeks old, by Harriet (Markowitz) and Sheldon James "Jim" Bay, who raised him. He has a sister, Lisa Bay.
Turned down the offer to direct Van Helsing , opting to do The Island instead.
Was offered the chance to direct Man on Fire .
Was offer the opportunity to direct Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines but pulled out of the project due to scheduling conflicts.
Good friends with Ben Affleck.
Was considered to direct Superman Returns .
Cousin of Susan Bay , cousin-in-law of Leonard Nimoy.
Was challenged by German filmmaker Uwe Boll to a charity boxing match in 2008.
He considers himself an old school director, preferring analog over digital, both in shooting on film stock and keeping CGI shots to a minimum, staging practical action and stunts whenever possible.
One of 20 prominent filmmakers to sign a letter in protest of Premium Video on Demand, which allows films to be streamed by home viewers at a cost of $30 only 60 days after the films release in theaters.
Was reported to be fine and uninjured after fending off two men who attacked him demanding money--and carrying an "air conditioner" as a weapon--on the set of the latest Transformers sequel shooting in Hong Kong in October, 2013.
(July 2010) Filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon in the United States, Russia and possibly Africa.
Was originally set to direct King Arthur but dropped out.
Co-Founded Propoganda Films in the early 1990s.
Was considered to direct Watchmen .
He was raised Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony.
One of the few directors to have won multiple Razzie Awards for Worst Director. He has won two. Both of his awards were for directing "Transformers" sequels.
Such is the intensely busy and chaotic nature of his film sets, the cast and crew generally refer to it as "Bayhem".
Was considered to direct Planet of the Apes .
Has directed seven films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing.
But you know, hey, my films have made a lot of money around the world.
To tell the truth, shooting action bores me now. But the audience has,grown to like what I do and expect visually stimulating excitement.
Staying in that genre is me being safe.
Whereas film, you would be able to get more blue out of it or whatever.
Everybody knows about Pearl Harbor. The thing that really fascinated me is that through this tragedy there was this amazing American heroism.
I make movies for teenage boys. Oh dear, what a crime.
Fast cars are my only vice. .
