Mitch Albom
@mitchalbom
About
MITCH ALBOM is an internationally renowned and best-selling author,journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcasterand musician. His books have collectively sold over 28 million copiesworldwide; have been published in forty-one territories and inforty-two languages around the world; and have been made into EmmyAward-winning and critically-acclaimed television movies.
Mitch was born on May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey, the middle ofthree children to Rhoda and Ira Albom. The family moved to the Buffalo,N.Y. area briefly before settling in Oaklyn, New Jersey, not far fromPhiladelphia. Mitch grew up wanting to be a cartoonist before switchingto music. He taught himself to play piano, and played in bands,including The Lucky Tiger Grease Stick Band, throughout hisadolescence. After attending high schools in New Jersey andPennsylvania, he left for college after his junior year. He earned abachelor’s degree in 1979 at Brandeis University in Waltham,Massachusetts, majoring in sociology, but stayed true to his dream of alife in music, and upon graduation, he worked for several years as aperformer, both in Europe and America. One of his engagements duringthis time included a taverna on the Greek island of Crete, in which hewas a featured American performer who sang Elvis Presley and RayCharles songs. He also wrote and produced the recording of severalsongs. In his early 20’s, while living in New York, he took an interestin journalism and volunteered to work for a local weekly paper, theQueens Tribune. He eventually returned to graduate school, earning aMaster’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School ofJournalism, followed by an MBA from Columbia University’s GraduateSchool of Business. During this time, he paid his tuition partlythrough work as a piano player.
Mitch eventually turned full-time to his writing, working as afreelance sports journalist in New York for publications such as SportsIllustrated, GEO, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. His first full timenewspaper job was as a feature writer and eventual sports columnist forThe Fort Lauderdale News and Sun Sentinel in Florida. He moved toDetroit in 1985, where he became a nationally-acclaimed sportsjournalist at the Detroit Free Press and one of the best-known mediafigures in that city’s history, working in newspapers, radio andtelevision. He currently hosts a daily talk show on WJR radio (airsMonday through Friday, 5-7 p.m. EST) and appears regularly on ESPNSports Reporters and SportsCenter.
In 1995, he married Janine Sabino. That same year he re-encounteredMorrie Schwartz, a former college professor who was dying of ALS, alsoknown as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His visits with Schwartz would lead tothe book Tuesdays with Morrie, which moved Mitch away from sports andbegan his career as an internationally recognized author.
Tuesdays with Morrie is the chronicle of Mitch’s time spent with hisbeloved professor. As a labor of love, Mitch wrote the book to help payMorrie’s medical bills. It spent four years on the New York TimesBestseller list and is now the most successful memoir ever published.His first novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, is the mostsuccessful US hardcover first adult novel ever. For One More Day, hismost recent, debuted at No.1 on the New York Times Bestseller List andspent nine months on the list. In October 2006, For One More Day wasthe first book chosen by Starbucks in the newly launched Book BreakProgram, which also helped fight illiteracy by donating one dollar fromevery book sold to Jumpstart.
All three of Albom’s best sellers have been turned into successfulTV movies. Oprah Winfrey produced the film version of Tuesdays WithMorrie in December 1999, starring Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria. The filmgarnered four Emmy awards, including best TV film, director, actor andsupporting actor. The critically acclaimed Five People You Meet inHeaven aired on ABC in winter, 2004. Directed by Lloyd Kramer, the filmwas the most watched TV movie of the year, with 19 million viewers.Most recently, Oprah Winfrey Presents Mitch Albom’s For One More Dayaired on ABC in December 2007 and earned Ellen Burstyn a Screen ActorsGuild nomination.
An award-winning journalist and radio host, Albom wrote thescreenplay for both For One More Day and The Five People You Meet inHeaven, and is an established playwright, having authored numerouspieces for the theater, including the off-Broadway version of TuesdaysWith Morrie (co-written with Jeffrey Hatcher) which has seen over onehundred productions across the US and Canada.
Mitch is also an accomplished song writer and lyricist. Later in hislife, when music had become a sideline, he would see several of hissongs recorded, including the song “Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)”which he wrote for rock singer Warren Zevon. Albom also wrote andperformed songs for several TV movies, including “Cookin’ for Two” forChristmas in Connecticut, the 1992 remake directed by ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
He has founded three charities in the metropolitan Detroit area: TheDream Fund, established in 1989, allows disadvantaged children tobecome involved with the arts. A Time To Help, founded in 1998, bringsvolunteers together once a month to tackle various projects in Detroit,including staffing shelters, building homes with Habitat for Humanity,and operating meals on wheels programs for the elderly. S.A.Y Detroit,Mitch’s most recent effort, is an umbrella program to fund shelters andcare for the homeless in his city. He also raises money for literacyprojects through a variety of means including his performances with TheRock Bottom Remainders, a band made up of writers which includesStephen King, Dave Barry, Scott Turow, Amy Tan and Ridley Pearson.Mitch serves on the boards of various charities and, in 1999, was namedNational Hospice Organization's Man of the Year.
