Michael Bay

**Michael Benjamin Bay** (born February 17, 1965) is an American director, producer and actor. He is known for his high-budget action movies which often use a lot of special effects, especially explosions. These include _Transformers_, _Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen_, _Transformers: Dark of the Moon_, _Transformers: Age of Extinction_, _Nightmare on Elm Street_, _Friday the 13th_, _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_, _Bad Boys_, _Pearl Harbor_, and _Armageddon_.

## Early life

Bay was born on February 17, 1965 in Los Angeles, California. He studied at Wesleyan University. His cousin-in-law was actor Leonard Nimoy.

## Career

Bay got his start in the film industry interning with George Lucas when he was fifteen, filing the storyboards for _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, which he thought was going to be terrible. His opinion changed after seeing it in the theater and he was so impressed by the experience that he decided to become a film director. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1986, majoring in both English and Film. He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and a favorite student of film historian Jeanine Basinger. For his graduate work, he attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he also studied film.

Michael Bay began working at Propaganda Films, directing commercials and music videos, two weeks after finishing his post-graduate degree. His 90-second World War II-inspired Coca-Cola advertisement was picked up by Capitol Records. His first national commercial for the Red Cross won a Clio Award in 1992.

Bay's success in music videos gained the attention of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who selected him to direct his first feature-length film, _Bad Boys_. The film was shot in Miami in 1994 and starred Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Shooting in Miami was a good experience for Bay who would later own a home in the city and spend a great deal of time there. The film was completed for $19 million and grossed $141 million at the box office in the summer of 1995. Bay's success led to a strong partnership and friendship with Jerry Bruckheimer.

His follow-up film, _The Rock_ (1996), was an action movie set on Alcatraz Island, and in the San Francisco Bay area. It starred Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris. Connery and Cage won 'Best On-Screen Duo' at the MTV Movie Awards in 1997 and the film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Achievement in Sound category for the work of Greg P. Russell, Kevin O'Connell, and Keith A. Wester.

In 1998, Bay collaborated with Jerry Bruckheimer again, this time as a co-producer, as well as directing the action-adventure film _Armageddon_. The film, about a group of tough oil drillers who are sent by NASA to deflect an asteroid away from a collision course with Earth, starred Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler. It was nominated for 4 Oscars at the 71st Academy Awards including Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Song. The film earned 9.6 million dollars on its opening day and a total of 36.5 million through the first weekend. The production budget, $140 million, was one of the highest of the summer of 1998. _Armageddon_ went on to gross over $553 million worldwide.

### Later career

In 2001, Bay directed _Pearl Harbor_. It starred Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale and Cuba Gooding, Jr. Bay produced the film with Jerry Bruckheimer. The film received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing and Best Song.  _Pearl Harbor_ won in the category for Sound Editing. Michael Bay also directed the music video for nominated track "There You'll Be" by vocal artist Faith Hill.  Despite all the criticisms that Michael Bay had received through the film, _Pearl Harbor_ remained  in the major blockbuster list, as it featured a plot which the viewers, especially young audiences, can relate with, and special effects which made the movie very realistic.

Bay reteamed with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for _Bad Boys II_, an event which also marked Bay's fifth collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer. The film grossed $138 million domestically, enough to cover the production budget, and $273 million worldwide, almost twice as much as the first movie.

In 2005, Bay directed _The Island_, a science-fiction film starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It was the first film Michael Bay made without Jerry Bruckheimer. _The Island_ cost $126 million to produce. It earned $46 million domestically and $172 million worldwide. Bay said he was not comfortable with the domestic marketing campaign as it confused the audience as to the true subject of the film.

In 2007, he directed and teamed up with Steven Spielberg to produce _Transformers_, a live action film based on the Transformers franchise. The film was released in the U.S. and Canada on July 3, 2007, with 8 p.m. preview screenings on July 2. The previews earned $8.8 million, and in its first day of general release it grossed $27.8 million, a record for Tuesday box office attendance. It broke the record held by Spider-Man 2 for the biggest July 4 gross, making $29 million. On its opening weekend, _Transformers_ grossed $70.5 million, amounting to a $155.4 million opening week, giving it the record for the biggest opening week for a non-sequel. As of November 2007, the film has made over $319 million domestically and over $708 million worldwide.

Bay returned as director and executive producer for _Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen_, which was released on June 24, 2009 and went on to gross over $832 million worldwide. Although it received mostly negative reviews by critics, including aggressively critical reviews by American film critics such as Roger Ebert, Michael Phillips and David Denby (who referred to Bay as "stunningly, almost viciously, untalented"), the film was well received by its intended audience and was one of the highest-grossing films of 2009. In 2010, it earned seven Golden Raspberry Award nominations and won three: Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.

Bay directed _Transformers: Dark of the Moon_, released on June 28, 2011. He may direct a sequel to the _Bad Boys_ franchise or a "small" film he's been developing for years, tentatively called _Pain & Gain_. The true crime story, based on events described in a Miami Herald article written by Pete Collins, concerns a group of bumbling bodybuilders working together to commit a robbery.

Bay produced DreamWorks' _I Am Number Four_, based on a series of novels by Pittacus Lore published by HarperCollins Children's Books. D. J. Caruso (_Eagle Eye_, _Disturbia_) directed.

### Movies

|Year|Title|Director|Producer|Actor|Role||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1995|_Bad Boys_||||||
|1996|_The Rock_||||||
|1998|_Armageddon_||||NASA Scientist (uncredited)||
|1999|_Mystery Men_||||Frat boy||
|2000|_Coyote Ugly_||||Photographer||
|2001|_Pearl Harbor_||||||
||Zigs|No|No|Yes|Extra||
|rowspan="2"|2003|_Bad Boys II_||||Crappy Car Driver|
|_The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_|||||||
|rowspan="2"|2005|_The Amityville Horror_|||||
|_The Island_|||||||
|2006|_The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning_||||||
|2007|Hitcher|No|Yes|No|||
||Transformers|Yes|Yes|Yes|Car Flicked by Megatron (uncredited)||
|rowspan="3"|2009|_The Unborn_|||||
|_Friday the 13th_|||||||
|_Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen_|||||||
|2010|_A Nightmare on Elm Street_||||||
|rowspan="2"|2011|_I Am Number Four_|||||
|_Transformers: Dark of the Moon_|||||||
|2012|_Rise of the Guardians_||||||
|rowspan="2"|2013|_Pain & Gain_|||||
|_The Purge_|||||||
|rowspan="5"|2014|_Transformers: Age of Extinction_|||Yes|Truck Driver (uncredited)|
|_The Purge: Anarchy_|||||||
|_Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles_|||||||
|_No Good Deed_|||||||
|_Ouija_|||||||
|rowspan="1"|2015|_Project Almanac_|||||
|2016|13 Hours The Secret of the Soldier of Benghazi|Yes|Yes|No|||
||Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2|No|Yes|No|||
||American Nightmare 3: Anarchy|No|Yes|No|||
||Ouija 2|No|Yes|No|||
|2017|Amytville: The Awaking|No|Yes|No|||
||Transformers: The Last Knight|Yes|Yes|No|||

## Criticism

Even though most his movies have made a lot of money, many movie critics do not like his work. He has often been made fun of and/or named as the worst working director. He has consistently topped or appeared in Worst Directors lists by users on Internet Movie Database (IMDB). In response to the criticism, Bay has said: "I make movies for teenage boys. Oh, dear, what a crime."

|rowspan="2"|Year|rowspan="2"|Film|Rotten Tomatoes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1995|_Bad Boys_|43%|||
|1996|_The Rock_|67%|||
|1998|_Armageddon_|39%|||
|2001|_Pearl Harbor_|25%|||
|2003|_Bad Boys II_|23%|||
|_The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_|36%||||
|2005|_The Amityville Horror_|23%|||
|_The Island_|40%||||
|2006|_The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning_|12%|||
|2007|_The Hitcher_|21%|||
|_Transformers_|57%||||
|2009|_The Unborn_|11%|||
|_Friday the 13th_|25%||||
|_Horsemen_|40%||||
|_Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen_|20%||||
|2010|_A Nightmare on Elm Street_|15%|||
|2011|_I Am Number Four_|32%|||
|_Transformers: Dark of the Moon_|36%||||
|2013|_Pain & Gain_|45%|||
|_The Purge_|38%||||

## Infobox (person)

- **image**: Michael.bay.png
- **caption**: Bay in 2006
- **birth name**: Michael Benjamin Bay
- **birth place**: Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- **nationality**: American
- **education**: Art Center College of Design
- **alma mater**: Wesleyan University
- **occupation**: Director, producer, actor
- **years active**: 1984–present
- **notable works**: _The Rock (movie), The Rock_, _Armageddon (1998 movie), Armageddon_, _Pearl Harbor (movie), Pearl Harbor_, _Transformers (movie), Transformers_, _Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen_, _Transformers: Dark of the Moon_, _Transformers: Age of Extinction_