Documented path
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.
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.
Co-chairman of Working Title Films; films have grossed almost $7 billion worldwide and won 12 Academy Awards; appointed CBE.
Where the conditions came from
Each is placed on a −1 to 3 scale from documented evidence, and the three are never added together. A combined total would rank Tim Bevan against other people. Held apart, they explain why this path ran differently from another one—which is the only comparison this project supports.
The marble itself
+1Tailwind
What capability, drive, or early skill is documented in the person rather than their surroundings?
No evidence of exceptional early cognitive or creative ability. Began career as a production runner on a New Zealand soap opera. Co-founded Working Title Films at 25, demonstrating entrepreneurial drive but not prodigy-level talent.
Where it was dropped
+2Tailwind
What money, family standing, network, or permission was already in place before the work began?
Born in Queenstown, New Zealand. Educated at elite British boarding schools: Sidcot School (Quaker boarding school, 1969-1974) and Cheltenham College. Family had significant means to send a child from New Zealand to expensive UK boarding schools, suggesting upper-middle-class or wealthy background.
The shape of the track
+1Tailwind
What place, timing, institution, or peer group made the next step available?
Moved to London in the early 1980s and worked in the British film industry. Co-founded Working Title Films with Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. London's film ecosystem provided the context, though no evidence of elite mentors or extraordinary peer group at the start.
A −1 is a documented headwind, not a missing value; a 0 means the sources record nothing notable either way. Annotation confidence: Medium. These are analyst readings of what the sources record, not measurements of merit, talent, or effort. The twenty-two scored dimensions remain available inside the deeper research detail.
What moved through the conditions
Silence in a biography is not evidence that perseverance was absent.
A successful-only archive cannot recover all encounters, avoided setbacks, or alternative outcomes.
Strongest documented signals: Family financial platform, Elite institution pipeline, Frontier geography.
Describes the starting position, not what the person later made of it.
Strongest observed levers: Complementary team, Capital safety, Domain proximity.
Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
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.
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.
Question four · where did the leverage come from?
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.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
A structural wave is external to the person, even when their position improved access to it.
One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.
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.
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.
Multiplying capacity documented later in the path. Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.
Access or conditions documented near the beginning of the path. Zero means "no clear evidence in reviewed sources," not "advantage was absent."
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.
Not documented in reviewed sources.
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: source_verified · status: subagent_researched_beta