Brett Ratner Biography

Early Life and Education

Brett Ratner was born on 28th March 1969 in Miami Beach, Florida to Marcia Pressman (who gave birth to him when she was only 16 years old). He did not know exactly know about his biological father, but as per his interview, he addressed Alvin Malnik as his father who raised him. But as per the record, his biological father is currently homeless in Miami Beach which inspired him to build his career in acting and direction.

Regarding his ethnicity, he is of Mixed descent as his mother was originally from Cuba and later moved to the US. Ratner grew up with his brother, Max.

Ratner finished his elementary and middle school from Rabbi Alexander S. Gross Hebrew Academy and Alexander Muss High School in Israel. Then, he attended Miami Beach Senior High School and graduated in 1986. In 1990, he graduated from New York University after leaving home. There with the help of the director, Steven Spielberg he raised fund for a documentary about a child star as a part of a project.

Career

In 1997, Ratner made directorial debut from the movie, Money Talks along with casts Chris Tucker, Charlie Sheen, Heather Locklear, Paul Sorvino. A year later in 1998, he directed the movie, Rush Hour starring Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Tom Wilkinson, Chris Penn and others. He also made two sequels of the movie, Rush Hour 2 in 2001 and Rush Hour 3 in 2007.

In 2000, he also directed an American superhero film, X-Men starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen and so on. A few years later he directed Superman Returns featuring Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden and others.

Moreover, he even directed series including CBS drama, CHAOS, Tower Heist, The 39 Clues and much more.

Apart from direction, he also was part of MTC series Punk’d and even featured as a judge for the Fox Network’s filmmaking competition series, On the Lot with other mates like Carrie Fisher, Jon Avnet, and Garry Marshall.

As a producer provided hit movies including Snow White, Mirror Mirror, Skyline, Horrible Bosses, Mother’s Day, True Crimes and much more.

Personal Life

Brett Ratner is single currently but had many affairs in the past. Rebecca Gayheart, an American fashion model, and actress is his first girlfriend with whom he began to date in 1986 when he was 17 and Gayheart was 15. They even got engaged and were ready to get married but broke after being together for 13 years for unknown reasons.

Furthermore, he also dated tennis player, Serena Williams for a year. After that, he had a brief romance with, Lindsay Lohan. Later on, Ratner was even rumored to be dating, Mariah Carey after spotted shopping together. But he strictly denied their relationship and confirmed that he was only directing her movie. 

Controversy

Ratner was part of a controversy after the revelation of his sexual harassment scandals. Almost seven ladies from the industry claimed that the director harassed them.

As per the actress, Natasha Henstridge, she claimed that she was raped by him and was forced to do oral sex with him when she was 19. Another actress, Olivia Munn claimed that he masturbated in front of her back in 2004. The incident took place while she was new in the Hollywood working for the movie After the Sunset where she was asked to deliver him food, but ultimately such incident occurred. She even explained,

‘’ He walked out ... with his belly sticking out, no pants on, shrimp cocktail in one hand and he was furiously masturbating in the other,' said Munn. And before I literally could even figure out where to escape or where to look, he ejaculated.’’

Later on, she tried to file a case and talked with an attorney but was denied to take a lawsuit against such a powerful producer. Apart from the two ladies, actress, Jamie Ray Newman confessed that she was forced to have oral sex with him in 2005 whereas another actress, Katherine Towe was followed by him and tried to harass her.

Another victim of his sexual conduct is Danielle Berrin, a journalist who described being harassed by him while an interview with him in 2008. But Ratner straightly denied all the allegations through his attorney Marty Singer who told,

‘’I have represented Mr. Ratner for two decades, and no woman has ever made a claim against him for sexual misconduct or sexual harassment. Furthermore, no woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client.’’

Net Worth

One of the richest directors, Ratner is currently 48 years old and has the height of 5 feet 8 inches (1.73m). 

Some of his movies made a remarkable collection at the box office like Money Talks ($78.4 million), Rush Hour($244.44 million), X-Men ($296.3 million), Superman Returns ($391.1 million), Hercules ($244.8 million), Horrible Bosses 2 ($107.7 million) and so on.

Apart from that, he has his own magazine and a publishing company in the Hollywood. Besides, he also appeared in numbers of the series. From all the sources, his net worth is estimated to be around $65 million in 2016-17. He is living a lavish lifestyle in his house in Beverly Hills.