Born on 26 June 1927 in Manhattan, New York. He is a graduate of the University of Miami. He worked as assistant to photographer Bill Helburn (1954- 65); then he started his career as a freelance still photographer. His fashion photography has been published in magazines such as Vogue, McCalls, Esquire, Glamour and Life. After directing some TV commercials, he made his debut as a film director in 1970 with Puzzle of a Downfall Child, the story of a fashion model. He scored with his second directorial effort, the gripping, finally acted The Panic in Needle Park (1971), a bleak study of cocaine addiction starring Al Pacino. Pacino co-starred with Gene Hackman in his next film, Scarecrow (1973), a moody tale of two drifters, which in many ways is an apotheosis of '70s alienation and confusion. Perhaps significantly, Schatzberg's critical following in the United States rose and fell with the '70s; after 1979's Seduction of Joe Tynan, the trend in Hollywood shifted from small, introspective films to the Spielberg/Lucas blockbuster mentality. But Jerry Schatzberg never lost his European devotees, as witness the international success of 1989's Reunion. Schatzberg won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival with Scarecrow.