Tim Bevan

Founders / operators · Film/TV/Entertainment · milestone at age 25 ·T2 Field-leading

Milestone (age 25)

Co-founded Working Title Films in London with Sarah Radclyffe in 1983 at age 25, establishing what would become one of the most successful British production companies.

Born in Queenstown, New Zealand, Bevan was educated at Sidcot School (a Quaker boarding school) and Cheltenham College. He started his career as a production runner on the soap opera Close to Home, then worked at New Zealand's National Film Unit. In the early 1980s he moved to Britain, worked at Video Arts (John Cleese's company), and in 1983 co-founded Working Title Films.

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Starting point

Born in Queenstown, New Zealand; educated at elite British boarding schools (Sidcot and Cheltenham College), suggesting an upper-middle-class family with means for private education.

Current position (2025)

Co-chairman of Working Title Films; films have grossed almost $7 billion worldwide and won 12 Academy Awards; appointed CBE.

How this path compounded

01 Starting advantages

5/24 starting-position score

Strongest documented signals: Family financial platform, Elite institution pipeline, Frontier geography.

Describes the starting position, not what the person later made of it.

Cohort percentile: 23

02 Built or converted leverage

8/25 multiplying-capacity score

Strongest observed levers:Complementary team, Capital safety, Domain proximity.

Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.

Cohort percentile: 6

03 Compounding trajectory

6 documented steps

The timeline below shows the sequence of work and transitions around the selected early milestone. It is evidence of a path, not proof that every step was necessary.

Milestone at age 25

04 Observed career standing

T2 · Field-leading

Dominant figure at the top of a field. The tier summarizes documented career recognition through the data cutoff—not Tim Bevan's worth or future potential.

How tiers work →

Question four · where did the leverage come from?

Tim Bevan's leverage provenance

Each non-zero lever gets a best-supported origin, evidence signals, and confidence. Unresolved is the honest default when the biography cannot distinguish self-built, advantage-enabled, earned, external, or mixed.

Complementary team1/2

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Exceptional peer / cofounder (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (1/2)

Capital safety1/2

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Family financial platform (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (1/2)

Domain proximity1/2

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Direct domain exposure (1/2)Frontier geography (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (1/2)

Prior reps1/3

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Elite institution pipeline (1/2)

Scarce skill depth1/3

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Elite institution pipeline (1/2)

Elite ecosystem network1/3

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Elite institution pipeline (1/2)Frontier geography (1/2)Exceptional peer / cofounder (1/2)

Structural wave / timing1/3

Externalmedium confidence

A structural wave is external to the person, even when their position improved access to it.

Frontier geography (1/2)

Concentration intensity1/3

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Family financial platform (1/2)

This is a bounded inference from the current annotations—not a claim about private effort, merit, or the percentage of Tim Bevan's outcome attributable to any origin.

Luck is not a leftover score.

Structural luck, Encounter luck, Event luck, Outcome variance can change every arrow in the path. This successful-only dataset cannot observe the near-identical paths that did not break through, so luck stays visible and unscored.

Within Founders / operators, Tim Bevan's starting-advantage total is at the 23th percentile. Separately, their built or converted leverage total is at the 6th percentile. Other T2 profiles average 7.9 / 24 starting advantage and 12.3 / 25 leverage. Similar scores appear in other tiers, so these figures describe positioning—not a cause.

Trajectory

1983 · age 25
Co-founded Working Title Films in London
Sarah Radclyffe.
1985 · age 27
Produced My Beautiful Laundrette
A landmark British independent film.
1994 · age 36
Produced Four Weddings and a Funeral
A major international hit.
1998 · age 40
Produced Elizabeth, sharing a BAFTA award
For Best British Film.
2012 · age 54
Produced Les Miserables, nominated
For Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
2024 · age 66
Produced The Substance, a critical and commercial success.

Primary leverage engine

Network and industry access

Network / capital

Secondary engine

Product / domain insight

Built/converted leverage

8 / 25

evidence: Medium

Built or converted leverage

Multiplying capacity documented later in the path. Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.

Started serious reps before 20

0/1

Prior reps

1/3

Scarce skill depth

1/3

Native distribution

0/3

Elite ecosystem network

1/3

Complementary team

1/2

Structural wave / timing

1/3

Concentration intensity

1/3

Capital safety

1/2

Domain proximity

1/2

Starting-advantage scores (0–2 each)

Access or conditions documented near the beginning of the path. Zero means "no clear evidence in reviewed sources," not "advantage was absent."

Family financial platform

1/2

Parent / family domain

0/2

Inherited audience / network

0/2

Elite institution pipeline

1/2

Frontier geography

1/2

Rare early tools

0/2

Dedicated mentor / coach

0/2

Exceptional peer / cofounder

1/2

Early online platform

0/2

Direct domain exposure

1/2

Prodigy / innate ability

0/2

Adversity / constraint catalyst

0/2

Family context

Born in Queenstown, New Zealand. Educated at Sidcot School, a Quaker boarding independent school in Somerset, and Cheltenham College, a boarding independent school in Gloucestershire. This suggests an upper-middle-class family with means for private education.

Parent / family domain

Not documented in reviewed sources.

Archetype & tags

Institutional ecosystem accelerationboarding school educationBritish film industryco-founder partnershipLondon

Evidence summary

Tim Bevan was born in New Zealand and educated at elite British boarding schools (Sidcot and Cheltenham College), suggesting family means. He began his career as a production runner in New Zealand before moving to London in the early 1980s. At 25, he co-founded Working Title Films with Sarah Radclyffe, leveraging his film industry experience and British network. The company would go on to produce some of the most successful British films.

advantage confidence: Low · source count: 4 · audit: not_independently_audited · status: subagent_researched_beta

Sources

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