Biografia

The only director to have two films listed in the top 10 of the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 100 greatest American films, Via col vento (1939) and Il mago di Oz (1939).

When making Via col vento (1939), he wanted Scarlett, for at least once in the film, to look like his hunting buddy Clark Gable's type of woman. So, when wearing the stunning low-cut burgundy velvet dress with rhinestones that Scarlett wears to Ashley Wilkes' birthday party in the second half of the film, to achieve the desired cleavage for Fleming, Walter Plunkett had to tape Vivien Leigh's breasts together.

Director Henry Hathaway, a former Fleming assistant director, said of his old boss, "There was more of Fleming in [Clark Gable] than there was Gable in Gable. I think that Gable really mimicked Victor Fleming and became that kind of man on the screen".

Did not live to see Il mago di Oz (1939), which he directed, become a sensation on television and an all-time classic through its annual telecasts.

He was working as a chauffeur for a wealthy family when he met director Allan Dwan in 1913. When the director began talking to him about repairing his own car, he discovered Fleming was knowledgeable about cameras and offered him a job as assistant cinematographer. Working behind the camera, Fleming learned about action pictures from Dwan and comedies from Marshall Neilan.