Walter Wanger
Walter Wanger (
July 11,
1894 -
November 18,
1968) was an important
American film producer.
Wanger was born
Walter Feuchtwanger in
San Francisco, California. He served with the
United States Army during
World War I.
He produced his first motion picture in 1929 titled
The Cocoanuts directed by
Joseph Santley and starring the
Marx brothers.
His many significant productions include
The Sheik (1921),
Stagecoach (1939),
Joan of Arc (1948),
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956),
I Want to Live! (1958), and
Cleopatra (1963).
Wanger married
silent film actress Justine Johnstone in 1919. They divorced in 1938 and in 1940 he married
Joan Bennett with whom he remained until 1965.
In 1951, Wanger shot his wife's agent in the thigh after confronting the two on suspicions that they were having an affair. His attorneys mounted a "temporary insanity" defence and he served only two years in prison.
The experience profoundly affected him and in 1954 he made the prison film
Riot in Cell Block 11.
Wanger was given an
Honorary Academy Award in 1946 for his service as President of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
His 1958 production of
I Want to Live! starred
Susan Hayward in an anti-
capital punishment film that is one of the most highly regarded films on the subject. Hayward won her only Oscar for her role in the film.
Walter Wanger died of a
heart attack, aged 74, in
New York City. He was interred in the Home of Peace Cemetery in
Coloma, California.
