Samuel Goldwyn Biography

Samuel Goldwyn	Samuel Gelbfisz Born: 1882-08-17 Birthplace: Warsaw, Poland Died: 1974-01-31 Location of Death: Los Angeles, CA Cause of Death: Heart Failure Race: White Religion: Jewish Field: Film/TV Producer Famous for: The G in MGM
Field: Film/TV Producer

Goldwyn (July, 1879, Warsaw, Poland – January 31, 1974, Los Angeles, California, United States) was a widely known motion picture producer and founding contributor of several motion picture studios.

Born Schmuel Gelbfisz to a Polish Jewish family, at age 16 he left his native Warsaw penniless and on foot. He made his way to Birmingham, England, where he remained with relatives for a few years using the English-sounding name, Samuel Goldfish. In 1898, he emigrated to the United States, but, fearing refusal of entry, he got off the boat in Nova Scotia before moving on to New York in January 1899. He found work in upstate Gloversville, New York in the bustling garment business. Soon his innate marketing skills made him a very successful salesman. After four years, as vice-president of sales, he moved back to New York City.

Samuel Goldfish became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1902. At the time, the fledgling film industry was expanding rapidly and in his spare time, an enraptured Goldfish went to see as many movies as possible. Before long, he went into the business with Vaudeville performer Jesse L. Lasky, his brother-in-law at the time, and Adolph Zukor, a theater owner. Together, the three produced their first film, using an ambitious young director named Cecil B. DeMille. Disputes arose between the partners and Goldfish left after a few years but their company evolved to later become Paramount Pictures. Shortly before this, he also divorced his first wife, with whom he had a daughter, Ruth.

In 1916 Samuel Goldfish partnered with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using a combination of both names to call their movie-making enterprise the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. Seeing an opportunity, Samuel Goldfish then had his surname legally changed to the less comical-sounding Goldwyn. The Goldwyn Company proved moderately successful but it is their "Leo the Lion" trademark for which the organization is most famous. Eventually the company was acquired by Marcus Loew and his Metro Pictures Corporation but by then Samuel Goldwyn had already been forced out by his partners and was never a part of the new studio that became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

In 1925, he married actress Frances Howard with whom he remained for the rest of his life. Their son, Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. would eventually join his father in the business.

After his departure from Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, he established Samuel Goldwyn Inc., eventually opening Samuel Goldwyn Studio on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. For 35 years, Goldwyn built a reputation for excellence in filmmaking and an eye for finding the talent for making films. He discovered actor Gary Cooper, used director William Wyler for many of his productions and hired writers such as Ben Hecht, Sidney Howard and Lillian Hellman. For more than three decades, Goldwyn made numerous successful films and received Best Picture Oscar nominations for Arrowsmith (1931), Dodsworth (1936), Dead End (1937), Wuthering Heights (1939), and The Little Foxes (1941). The hallmark of his films was excellence.

In 1946, the year he was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, Goldwyn's drama The Best Years of Our Lives won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In the 1950s Samuel Goldwyn turned to making a number of musicals including the 1955 hit Guys and Dolls starring Marlon Brando. Two years later, in 1957, he was awarded The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes.

In his final film made in 1959, Samuel Goldwyn brought together African-American actors Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr. and singer Pearl Bailey in a film rendition of the George Gershwin Opera, Porgy and Bess. The film won three Oscars.

Samuel Goldwyn died at his home in Los Angeles in 1974 from natural causes at the age of 94. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. In the 1980s, Samuel Goldwyn Studio was sold to Warner Bros.. There is a theater named for him in Beverly Hills and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1631 Vine Street.

Goldwyn is remembered as a ruthless businessman who lacked formal education and his sometimes crude manners added to an explosive temper that left him with few close friends. He nevertheless was a film genius who believed in quality and who not only survived, but prospered in an extremely competitive business. On the passing of former partner and arch rival Louis B. Mayer, he is quoted as saying: "The reason so many people turned up at his funeral is that they wanted to make sure he was dead."

Several years after the Sr. Goldwyn's death, his son, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., initiated an independent film and television distribution company dedicated to preserving the integrity of Goldwyn's ambitions and work. The rights to the classic Goldwyn library (among other pre-1996 Goldwyn company holdings) are now held by MGM.