Denice Halicki is the CEO of Halicki Films. She is an Executive Producer and the gasoline behind the car film, “Gone in 60 Seconds”, starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi and Robert Duvall and of course Eleanor (Fastback Ford Mustang). Ten years in the making, she finally made her dream come true, when the film was released on June 9th, 2000 and skyrocketed to the number one film in America and became an International blockbuster at the box office grossing over $350 million.

Denice was born and raised in Southern California into a prominent dairy family. Her great-grandfather Isaac started with 3 cows and built Reliance Dairy into the world’s largest privately owned dairy chain and her grandfather Demos Shakarian founded the world-renowned Full Gospel Businessman’s Fellowship International. Today under her father Richard’s leadership as International President FGBMFI represents over 160 nations. Denice’s mother’s family originated from Norwegian missionaries whose pilgrimage led them to China. Both worlds exposed her to global leaders within politics, business and religion.

Denice attended Oral Roberts University. While pursuing an academic life, she acted as the “television ambassador” to the president of the university, hosting such personalities as Bob Hope and Natalie Cole. She also modeled and spent time speaking to youth groups and women’s organizations throughout the country.

In 1983 Denice met the Man who would change her life forever. Sparks flew for six years and on May 11, 1989, she married H.B. ‘Toby’ Halicki – known to his friends, fans and the film world as “The Car Crash King”. During their courtship, Denice became a businesswoman, helping Toby run his business empire, learning the “ins” and “outs” of the film, real estate and the automobile worlds. After their honeymoon, they started making the sequel to Toby’s classic “Gone in 60 Seconds”. Denice was to co-star as Toby’s leading lady. On August 20, 1989, on the set in Buffalo, New York while Toby was preparing for the most dramatic stunt sequence in the film a freak accident occurred and Toby was killed instantly. With Denice near Toby and crowds of fans and the press watching, in one tragic moment Toby was gone. Denice was a bride and widow in the same summer.

Denice had one thought and one thought only to finish what Toby and she had started. In  pursuit of that dream and to protect her deceased husband’s estate and legacy she had togo through 7 trials, proving forgery, theft and fraud in trying to protect Toby’s films and his large antique toy and vintage automobile collection. It’s one of the largest in the world and contained over 100,000 antique vintage toys dating back to the 1920’s all hand picked and placed in the collection by Toby. In 1994 the court released Toby’s films to Denice, but in the battle to protect Toby’s legacy she lost the toy and car collection and was devastated. The vast collection was the size of a football field surrounded by an authentic old western town with hidden doors. When Toby would drive to work, he would drive the car into his office and park it by his desk, not unlike their 8 acre dream home Toby was building for them where the cars would drive into the house. Denice was passionate about preserving Toby’s legacy.

After years of determination, Denice finally set in to motion the re-make of “Gone in 60 Seconds”. She made a deal with Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer in 1995. For the next 3 years Denice as Executive Producer worked with the writer, Scott Rosenberg, Bruckheimer and Disney on the project. In 1999 filming began with the Award-Winning Cast, army of stunt men and crew led by Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Director Dominic Sena. Dominic Sena knew Toby and his films well because he worked as a cameraman on “The Junkman” with Toby in 1980.

Not unlike her late husband, Toby, Denice pursued the dream to see “Gone” remade and all of H.B. Halicki’s films restored, digitally re-mastered and released on DVD and VHS, with vision, passion and gasoline in her veins.

In the year 2000, under the banner of Halicki Films, Denice began working with Producer Michael Leone to put together a film restoration team and a worldwide distribution arm that works on all Halicki titles. All the DVDs and VHSs have very unique and innovative elements. They include found footage, original marketing materials, hundreds of rare photos and interviews with icons in the automobile, car racing, manufacturing and filmmaking industries. On the “Gone in 60 Seconds” DVD Denice sat down with Lee Iacocca, the father of the Ford Mustang, and he spoke about Eleanor and the creation of the Ford Mustang.

Halicki Films re-released the original “Gone in 60 Seconds” with Eleanor’s 40-minute car chase scene and the critics and consumers are wild about it. “One of the Greatest Chase Scenes in History!”…USA Today. “The Junkman” which is 2nd in the Gone In 60 Seconds series has also been re-released. “The Junkman” is in the Guinness Book of World Records and the Guinness Museum for the most amount of car crashes in a film.

In addition to the release of “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “The Junkman”, Halicki Films issued a special edition DVD which includes “Deadline Auto Theft”, “Gone in 60 Seconds 2” rare footage and a 45 minute documentary “The Life and Times of H.B. Halicki”. The DVD has a car crash counter and all the DVD’s are loaded with extras for the fans. Also under Denice’s helm, Racing Champions ERTL and Johnny Lightning joined forces with Halicki Films and have released a series of toys, models & die cast cars of Eleanor and other hot cars from the Gone in 60 Seconds series.

While accepting engagements as a motivational speaker around the world, Denice is also working on a book about what it took to make her dream come true in Hollywood’s film machine, her fight to preserve the legacy of the man she loved and to encourage others.Denice firmly believes that: “In times of adversity don’t quit. Even when you think you have failed, don’tquit. Your dreams may be just around the corner.”