Jonathan Kaplan's early life began in Paris, France, where he was born to film composer Sol Kaplan and actress Frances Heflin, sister of actor Van Heflin and a regular on the soap opera All My Children.
Kaplan started his career as a child actor, starring in the Broadway production of "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" directed by Elia Kazan, and later performed in Elaine May's improvisational theatre and worked with Martin Ritt in "The Molly Maguires" and Arthur Hiller in "Plaza Suite".
He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Chicago and attended New York University's Film School, where he made a short film entitled Stanley, Stanley, which won the grand prize in the National Student Film Festival.
Kaplan then cut a film for PBS and worked at the Fillmore East before receiving a call from Roger Corman, who offered him the opportunity to direct his first Hollywood film, Night Call Nurses, in 1972.
He demonstrated sufficient resourcefulness on a severely restricted budget to be given another Corman feature to direct, The Student Teachers, in 1973, and also directed The Slams for Roger's producer brother, Gene Corman.
Kaplan's next film, Truck Turner, starring Isaac Hayes, was one of the early black exploitation films, followed by White Line Fever, starring Jan-Michael Vincent and Kay Lenz, which became one of Columbia Pictures' successful films in 1975.
He then directed Mr. Billion, starring Terence Hill, and Over the Edge, for which he discovered Matt Dillon, although it encountered distribution problems and received critical attention only after being shown in revival houses two years later.
Kaplan has also directed several television films, including 11th Victim, The Hustler of Muscle Beach, The Gentleman Bandit, and Girls of the White Orchid, as well as the feature films Heart Like a Wheel, starring Bonnie Bedelia and Beau Bridges, and several music videos, including Barbra Streisand's "Left in the Dark", Rod Stewart's "Infatuation", and John Mellencamp's "Rain on the Scarecrow", "Lonely Ole Night", "Smalltown", and "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.".
