Goldwyn, Samuel (redirected from Goldwyn)

Goldwyn, Samuel (gōl`dwĭn), 1882–1974, American film producer, b. Warsaw, Poland. Goldwyn arrived in the United States in 1896, and with Jesse L. Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille he organized the Jesse Lasky Feature Photoplay Company, coproducing The Squaw Man (1913). In 1916 he formed the Goldwyn Pictures Corp., which later merged with Metro Pictures and the company organized by Louis B. Mayer to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. To promote superior screenwriting he founded Eminent Authors Pictures, Inc. (1919). Goldwyn later produced many major films independently, including Wuthering Heights (1939), Guys and Dolls (1955), and Porgy and Bess (1959). He won an Academy Award for The Best Years of Our Lives (1947).

Bibliography

See his Behind the Screen (1923); A. S. Berg, Goldwyn (1989); C. Easton, The Search for Samuel Goldwyn (1989).

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Goldwyn, Samuel

 orig. Schmuel Gelbfisz later Samuel Goldfish

(born July 1879, Warsaw, Pol.—died Jan. 31, 1974, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) U.S. film producer. He emigrated alone at age 13 from Poland to New York, where he worked in a glove factory and became a salesman. He formed a film company with his brother-in-law, Jesse L. Lasky (1880–1958), and Cecil B. DeMille in 1913. In 1917 he left the company and with Edgar Selwyn established Goldwyn Pictures Corp. By the time that company merged into MGM (1924), he had become an independent producer. He employed top screenwriters, directors, and actors to produce films of high quality, including Wuthering Heights (1939), The Little Foxes (1941), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Guys and Dolls (1955), and Porgy and Bess (1959).

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Goldwyn, Samuel (b. Samuel Goldfish) (1882–1974) film producer; born in Warsaw, Poland. He ran away to London at age 11, and at age 13 he came to America. He became a glovemaker and salesman, then in 1913 he went into the film business, producing The Squaw Man (1914). The founder of Samuel Goldwyn Productions in 1923, this great showman produced such quality films as Dead End (1937), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Guys and Dolls (1955). Famous for his "Goldwynisms" ("include me out"), he won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1946.