William Fay (Producer)

William Fay is an American film producer and production executive. His productions include The
Hangover, Independence Day, The Patriot, 300, and The Town. He is the co-founder and former
President of Production for Legendary Entertainment, and former President of Centropolis
Entertainment.
Biography
Fay was born in Redmond, WA, the son of James, a timber cutter/contractor, and Patricia (née Burkheimer), a film location manager. He attended Stanford University and UCLA Film School, where he won the Jim Morrison Award for Outstanding Student Film.
Career
Fay got his first movie job as a producer’s assistant while still in graduate school at UCLA. After working in various production roles, he produced his first film, Bombs Away, financed by Seattle investors and shot entirely in that city., , His next film as producer was New World Pictures’ action-comedy Jake Speed, shot in Zimbabwe, Africa. ,
Fay’s first major studio production was the comedy CB4 starring Chris Rock. After a number of other studio productions, in 1995 Fay joined director Roland Emmerich and producer/writer Dean Devlin as President of Centropolis Entertainment, where he served as Executive Producer on a number of high-profile films including The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger, and the blockbuster Independence Day, which at the time was the second highest-grossing film in history in terms of worldwide box office. Fay has a brief cameo in the movie as “Dr. Bill Fay,” who operates the light display in Operation Welcome Wagon. While at Centropolis, Fay oversaw the development of the company’s digital entertainment ventures, including Centropolis Effects, a top-tier visual effects house later sold to Das Werk, and mothership.com, a sci-fi online vertical sold to USA Networks in June 2000.
In 2004, Fay teamed up with venture capitalist Thomas Tull to negotiate a deal to buy the Orion Pictures library from MGM . When MGM elected to sell Orion to Sony, a decision was made to build a company from the ground up. Legendary Entertainment was formed, with Fay as President of Production, and after raising $500 million from private equity firms, Legendary entered into a partnership with Warner Bros. to co-produce and co-finance up to 40 films over seven years. Legendary Entertainment was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group for $3.5 billion in 2016.
While at Legendary, Fay was Executive Producer of a number of films including The Hangover , 300 , Superman Returns , Clash of the Titans , and The Town . Fay is a member of the Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, and the Screen Actors Guild.

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