It is well known by most locals that Los Gatos High School graduate Olivia de Haviland won American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards for her performances in To Each His Own in 1946, and The Heiress in 1949.
Maybe not so well known is that half a century later Daniel Jinks, class of 1981, and his production partner Bruce Cohen won the Best Picture award for American Beauty.
During an appearance at the Los Gatos Film Festival in 2003 Jinks compared our idyllic town to a movie set and said the years he spent here were the happiest of his life.
In his freshman year he won a role in the spring musical and he appeared in three more musicals and two plays before graduating and moving on to New York University where his interest in film evolved.
In 2011 Jinks launched his own film and television production company, The Dan Jinks Company.
Source: Hooked on Los Gatos, the Library and Museum History Project
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