David O. Selznick
 |
David O. Selznick |
David O. Selznick (
May 10,
1902–
June 22,
1965), was one of the iconic
Hollywood producers of the Golden Age. He is best known for producing the epic blockbuster
Gone with the Wind (
1939) which earned him an
Oscar for Best Picture. Not only did Gone With the Wind gross the highest amount of money at the box office (adjusted for inflation), but also won seven additional Oscars and two special awards. Selznick also won the
Irving G. Thalberg award that same year. He would make film history by winning the Best Picture Oscar a second year in a row for
Rebecca (1940).
Selznick was born to a
Jewish family in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of
silent movie distributor
Lewis J. Selznick and Florence A. (Sachs) Selznick. He studied at
Columbia University and worked as an apprentice in his father's company until his father went bankrupt in 1923. In 1926, Selznick moved to Hollywood and with his father's connections, got a job as an assistant story editor at
MGM. He left MGM for
Paramount Pictures in 1928, working there until 1931 when he joined
RKO as Head of Production. His years at RKO were fruitful and he guided many notable films there, including
A Bill of Divorcement (1932),
What Price Hollywood (1932) and
King Kong (1933). While at RKO, he also gave
George Cukor his big directing break. In 1933 he returned to MGM to establish a second prestige production unit to parallel that of
Irving Thalberg who was in poor health. His blockbuster classics included
Dinner at Eight (1933),
David Copperfield (1935),
Anna Karenina (1935) and
A Tale of Two Cities (1935).
But Selznick was restless and longed to be an independent producer and establish his own studio. In 1935 he realized that goal by forming
Selznick International Pictures and distributing his films through
United Artists. His successes continued with classics such as
The Garden of Allah (1936),
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937),
A Star Is Born (1937),
Nothing Sacred (1937),
Made For Each Other (1939),
Intermezzo (1939) and of course, his magnum opus,
Gone with the Wind (1939). In 1940, he produced his second Best Picture Oscar winner in a row,
Rebecca, the first Hollywood production for British director
Alfred Hitchcock. Selznick had brought Hitchcock over from England, launching the director's American career.
Rebecca was Hitchcock's only film to win Best Picture.
After
Rebecca, Selznick closed
Selznick International Pictures and took some time off. His business activities included loaning out to other studios for large profits the high-powered talent he had under contract including Hitchcock,
Ingrid Bergman,
Vivien Leigh and
Joan Fontaine. He also developed film projects and sold the packages to other producers. In 1944 he returned to producing pictures with the huge success
Since You Went Away, which he wrote. He followed that with the classic
Spellbound (1945) as well as
Portrait of Jennie (1948). In 1949, he co-produced the memorable Carol Reed picture
The Third Man.
After
Gone with the Wind, Selznick spent the rest of his career trying to top that landmark achievement. The closest he came was with
Duel in the Sun (1946). With a huge budget, the film is renowned for its stellar cast, its sweeping cinematography and for causing all sorts of moral upheaval because of the then risqué script written by Selznick. And though it was a troublesome shoot with a number of directors, the film would turn out to be a major success. The film was the second highest grossing film of 1947 and turned out to be the first movie that
Martin Scorsese would see, inspiring the director's career.
Selznick spent most of the 1950s obsessing about nurturing the career of his second wife
Jennifer Jones. His last film, the big budget production,
A Farewell to Arms (1957) starring Jones and
Rock Hudson, was ill received. But in 1954, he ventured successfully into television, producing a two hour extravaganza called
Light's Diamond Jubilee, which, in true Selznick fashion, made TV history by being telecast simultaneously on all networks.
Selznick died in 1965 following several
heart attacks, and was interred in the
Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in
Glendale, California.
In addition to his stellar filmography, Selznick had a keen instinct for new talent and will be remembered for introducing American movie audiences to
Fred Astaire, Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Vivien Leigh and
Louis Jourdan as well as director Alfred Hitchcock. Selznick continued to be a larger than life Hollywood presence right up to the end of his life. A fascinating study in contrasts, this passionate, creative, obsessed product of the motion picture business remains an integral part of film making history.
Despite the debt many of his discoveries owe him and his undoubtable dedication to film-making, Selznick is considered to be the stereotypical version of the
film producer to whom his modern equivalents are often compared to. One who constantly interfered with the creative process of film-making and earned as many enemies as friends.
Alfred Hitchcock, whose film
Spellbound was edited on Selznick's insistence grew resentful of his nature and decided to produce his own films from
Notorious onwards. He also battled with
Carol Reed during the production of
The Third Man and severely edited the film for its American release. Perhaps the most famous example of his interference was during the production of
Powell and Pressburger's
Gone to Earth starring his wife
Jennifer Jones. After production, Selznick disliked the film and removed almost an entire third of it for its American release, under the title
The Wild Heart. Selznick lost a court case with Powell & Pressburger to control all versions of the film but he retained control of the American release so he proceeded to cut and change various sections back in Hollywood.
* David O. Selznick's real name is simply
David Selznick. It is sometimes claimed that the "O" stands for Oliver, but, in fact, the initial is an invention of his. The book
Memo from David O. Selznick starts with this autobiographical memoir:::I have no middle name. I briefly used my mother's maiden name, Sachs. I had an uncle, whom I greatly disliked, who was also named David Selznick, so in order to avoid the growing confusion between the two of us, I decided to take a middle initial and went through the alphabet to find one that seemed to me to give the best punctuation, and decided on "O."
Hitchcock made subtle reference to this in
North by Northwest where the middle name of
Cary Grant's character Roger O. Thornhill remains unrevealed. He also dressed the antagonist of
Rear Window to look like Selznick.
* Selznick married
Irene Gladys Mayer, daughter of
MGM mogul
Louis B. Mayer, in 1930. They divorced in 1948. They had two sons,
Daniel Selznick and
Jeffrey Selznick.
* Selznick married actress
Jennifer Jones in 1949. They had one daughter, Mary Jennifer Selznick, who committed
suicide in 1975.
*Selznick's brother
Myron Selznick became one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood, defining the profession for those that followed. He died in 1944.
*For his indelible contribution to the motion picture industry, David O. Selznick has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd., in front of the historic Hollywood Roosevelt hotel.
After Selznick's death, his estate sold the rights to a majority of his post-1935 films to
ABC (now part of
Disney/
Buena Vista), although
MGM retained the rights to
Gone with the Wind (today part of the
Turner Entertainment library), and
20th Century Fox still holds rights to the remake of
A Farewell To Arms.
Academy Awards and Nominations
*
1946 Nominated Best Picture
Spellbound*
1945 Nominated Best Picture
Since You Went Away*
1941 Won Best Picture
Rebecca*
1940 Won
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award*
1940 Won Best Picture
Gone with the Wind*
1938 Nominated Best Picture
A Star Is Born*
1937 Nominated Best Picture
A Tale of Two Cities* Thomson, David.
Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick. New York: Knopf, 1992. ISBN 0394568338
*
