Samuel Goldwyn(1879-1974)
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Famed for his relentless ambition, bad temper and genius for publicity,
Samuel Goldwyn became Hollywood's leading "independent" producer --
largely because none of his partners could tolerate him for long. Born
Shmuel (or Schmuel) Gelbfisz, probably in 1879, in the Jewish section
of Warsaw, he was the eldest of six children of a struggling
used-furniture dealer. In 1895 he made his way to England, where
relatives Anglicized his name to Samuel Goldfish. There he begged (or
stole) enough money for a ticket in steerage across the Atlantic. He
reached the US, probably via Canada, in 1898. He gravitated to
Gloversville, New York, in the Adirondack foothills, which was then the
capital of the US leather glove industry; he became one of the
country's most successful glove salesmen. After moving his base of
operations to Manhattan and marrying the sister of
Jesse L. Lasky, who was then a theatrical
producer, Goldfish convinced Lasky and
Cecil B. DeMille to go into film
production. The new company's first film,
The Squaw Man (1914), was one of
the first features made in Hollywood; the company later became the
nucleus of what would later become Paramount Pictures. As his marriage
fell apart, Goldfish dissolved his partnership with Lasky. His next
enterprise was the Goldwyn Co., founded in 1916 and named for himself
and his partners, brothers Edgar Selwyn and
Archibald Selwyn--Goldfish liked the
name so much he took it for his own. The Goldwyn
Co.'s stars included
Mabel Normand,
Madge Kennedy and
Will Rogers, but its most famous
legacy was its "Leo the Lion" trademark, which was adopted by its
successor company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Goldwyn himself was
ousted from his own company before the merger, which was why his name
became part of MGM even though he himself had nothing to do with the
company. After his firing Goldwyn would have nothing to do with
partners and went into independent production on his own, and for 35
years was the boss and sole proprietor of his own production company, a
mini-studio specializing in expensive "quality" films, distributed
initially by United Artists and later by RKO. His contract actors at
various times included Vilma Bánky,
Ronald Colman,
Eddie Cantor,
Gary Cooper,
David Niven and
Danny Kaye. In some cases, Goldwyn collected
substantial fees for "lending" his stars to other producers. Touted by
publicists for his "Goldwyn touch" and loathed by many of his hirelings
for his habit of ordering films recast, rewritten and recut, Goldwyn is
best remembered for his films that teamed director
William Wyler and cinematographer
Gregg Toland.
