David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and film studio executive who produced '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''

Rebecca Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...

'' (1940), both of which earned him an

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only categor ...

Early life

Born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsyl ...

, he was the son of Florence Anna (née Sachs) and Lewis J. Selznick, a silent movie producer and distributor of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

origin. His father was born in Lithuania in 1870. David had four siblings, including his brother

Myron Myron of Eleutherae ( grc, Μύρων, ''Myrōn'' ), working c. 480–440 BC, was an Athenian sculptor from the mid-5th century BC. He was born in Eleutherae on the borders of Boeotia and Attica. According to Pliny's '' Natural History'', Agela ...

, also a film producer and later a

talent agent A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or s ...

. David Selznick added the "O" to distinguish himself from an uncle with the same name, and because he thought it had flair. The "O" stands for nothing, and he never had his name legally changed to incorporate it. He studied at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and started training as an apprentice for his father until the elder's bankruptcy in 1923. In 1926, Selznick moved to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

, and with the help of his father's connections, he gained a job as an assistant story editor at

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

. He left MGM for

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

in 1928, where he worked until 1931. While at Paramount he married Irene Gladys Mayer, daughter of MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer.

Stint at RKO

David Sarnoff David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971) was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career, he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities from shortly aft ...

, head of RKO, hired Selznick as Head of Production in October 1931. In addition to implementing rigorous cost-control measures, Selznick championed the unit production system, which gave the producers of individual movies much greater independence than they had under the prevailing central producer system. "Under the factory system of production you rob the director of his individualism", said Selznick, "and this being a creative industry that is harmful to the quality of the product made."Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson (1985). ''The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960''. New York: Columbia University Press. , p. 321. Instituting unit production, he predicted, would also result in cost savings of 30–40 percent. To make films under the new system, Selznick recruited prize behind-the-camera personnel, such as director

George Cukor George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of ...

and producer/director Merian C. Cooper, and gave producer Pandro S. Berman, aged twenty-six, increasingly important projects. Selznick discovered and signed a young actress who was quickly counted as one of the studio's big stars,

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...

John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Barrymore family, Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage ...

was also enlisted for a few memorable performances. Selznick spent a mere fifteen months as RKO production chief, resigning over a dispute with new corporate president Merlin Aylesworth concerning creative control. One of his last acts at RKO was to approve a

screen test A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a cam ...

for a thirty-three-year-old, balding Broadway song-and-dance man named

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

. In a memo, Selznick wrote, "I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is ... tremendous". Selznick's tenure was widely considered masterful: In 1931, before he arrived, the studio had produced forty-two features for $16 million in total budgets. In 1932, under Selznick, forty-one features were made for $10.2 million, with clear improvement in quality and popularity. He backed several major successes, including '' A Bill of Divorcement'' (1932), with Cukor directing Hepburn's debut, and the monumental ''

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

'' (1933)—largely Merian Cooper's brainchild, brought to life by the astonishing

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual w ...

work of

Willis O'Brien Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962) was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history ...

Return to MGM

In 1933 he returned to MGM where his father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer, was studio CEO. Mayer established a second prestige production unit for Selznick, parallel to that of

Irving Thalberg Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...

, who was in poor health. Selznick's unit output included the all-star cast movie '' Dinner at Eight'' (1933), ''

David Copperfield ''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...

'' (1935), ''

Anna Karenina ''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writte ...

'' (1935), and ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the ...

'' (1935).

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic c ...

's contract with MGM supposedly provided that only Selznick or Thalberg could produce her pictures for the studio. When Selznick later announced his departure from MGM, Garbo asked him to stay, offering to allow him the exclusive right to produce her films. Selznick declined the offer.

Selznick International Pictures

Selznick longed to be an independent producer with his own studio. In 1935 he realized that goal by leasing RKO's

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

studios and back lot, forming Selznick International Pictures, and distributing his films through

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

. His successes continued with classics such as '' The Garden of Allah'' (1936), ''

The Prisoner of Zenda ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' is an 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope, in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in or ...

'' (1937), '' A Star Is Born'' (1937), '' Nothing Sacred'' (1937), '' The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1938), '' The Young in Heart'' (1938), '' Made for Each Other'' (1939), ''

Intermezzo In music, an intermezzo (, , plural form: intermezzi), in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work. In music history, the term ha ...

'' (1939) and '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939), which remains the highest-grossing film of all time (adjusted for inflation). ''Gone with the Wind'' won eight Oscars and two special awards. Selznick also won the

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Governors Awards ceremonies to "creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion pictur ...

that same year. The following year he produced his second Best Picture Oscar winner, ''

'' (1940), the first Hollywood production of British director

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

. Selznick had brought Hitchcock over from England, launching the director's American career. ''Rebecca'' was Hitchcock's only film to win Best Picture.

Later productions

After ''Rebecca'', Selznick closed Selznick International Pictures and took some time off. His business activities included the loan of his contracted artists to other studios, including

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary '' Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is ofte ...

Vivien Leigh Vivien Leigh ( ; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967; born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gon ...

and

Joan Fontaine Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (October 22, 1917 – December 15, 2013), known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was a British-American actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the " Golden Age". Fontaine appeared ...

. He formed The Selznick Studio and returned to producing pictures with '' Since You Went Away'' (1944), which he also wrote. He followed that with the Hitchcock films '' Spellbound'' (1945) and '' The Paradine Case'' (1947), as well as '' Portrait of Jennie'' (1948) with

Jennifer Jones Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned over five decades, she was nominated ...

. He also developed film projects and sold the packages to other producers. Among the movies that he developed but then sold was Hitchcock's ''

Notorious Notorious means well known for a negative trait, characteristic, or action. It may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Notorious'' (1946 film), a thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Notorious'' (1992 film), a TV film re ...

'' (1946). In 1949 he co-produced the

Carol Reed Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for '' Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), '' The Third Man'' (1949), and '' Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded th ...

picture '' The Third Man'' with

Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)Duel in the Sun'' (1946) featuring future wife Jennifer Jones in the role of the primary character Pearl. With a huge budget, the film is known for causing 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 be a major success. The film was the second highest-grossing film of 1947 and was the first movie that

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...

saw, inspiring Scorsese's own directorial career. "I stopped making films in 1948 because I was tired," Selznick later wrote. "I had been producing, at the time, for twenty years....Additionally it was crystal clear that the motion-picture business was in for a terrible beating from television and other new forms of entertainment, and I thought it a good time to take stock and to study objectively the obviously changing public tastes....Certainly I had no intention of staying away from production for nine years." Selznick spent most of the 1950s nurturing the career of his second wife,

. His last film, the big budget production ''

A Farewell to Arms ''A Farewell to Arms'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant () in the am ...

'' (1957) starring Jones and

Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Golde ...

, was ill-received. But in 1954, he ventured 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 four TV networks: CBS,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

, ABC, and DuMont.

Personal life

In 1928, Selznick began an on-again off-again affair with

Jean Arthur Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s. Arthur had feature roles in three F ...

, one of the actresses under contract at Paramount while he was an executive there. Simultaneously he was dating Irene Gladys Mayer, daughter of MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer. In 1930, Selznick married Mayer and after living in a series of rented houses they moved into an estate in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

. It was purchased for them by Mayer's father and designed by architect Roland Coate in 1933–1934. They separated in 1945 and divorced in 1948. They had two sons, Jeffrey Selznick (1932–1997) and Daniel Selznick (born 1936). In 1949, he married actress

, whom he had discovered early in her career and mentored. They had one daughter, Mary Jennifer Selznick (1954–1976), who committed suicide by jumping from a 20th-floor window in Los Angeles on May 11, 1976. Selznick was an

amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...

user, and often dictated long, rambling memos to his directors, writers, investors, staff and stars. The documentary ''Shadowing The Third Man'' relates that Selznick introduced '' The Third Man'' director

to the use of amphetamines, which allowed Reed to bring the picture in below budget and on schedule by filming nearly 22 hours at a time. Selznick was a Republican. On October 18, 1944, the Hollywood Committee, led by Selznick and Cecil B. DeMille, held the Hollywood for Dewey Rally in the Los Angeles Coliseum in support of the Dewey- Bricker ticket, as well as Governor

Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presided over a major shift in American constitutio ...

of California, who was Dewey's running mate in 1948. The gathering drew 93,000, with

Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' A Free Soul'' (1931 ...

as the master of ceremonies and short speeches by

Hedda Hopper Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committe ...

and

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

. Selznick was a sexual predator. Selznick International Pictures employee Anita Colby warned Shirley Temple to be careful if she “found Selznick in stockings.” Temple-Black wrote in her autobiography ''Child Star'' that this gave her “the impression that casual sex could be a condition of employment” with Selznick. When she was 17, he locked Temple in his office and unsuccessfully attempted to rape her. About the incident Temple-Black wrote: :“Coming around my side of the desk, he reached and took my hand in his. Glancing down, I saw the telltale stocking feet. Pulling free, I turned for the door, but even more quickly he reached back over the edge of his desk and flicked a switch I had learned from Colby was a remote door-locking device. I was trapped. Like the cartoon of wolf and piglet, once again we circled and reversed directions around his furniture. Blessed with the agility of a young dancer and confronted by an amorous but overweight producer, I had little difficulty avoiding passionate clumsiness.“

Portrayal in film

Jonathan Shields, the lead character in the 1952 film ''The Bad and the Beautiful'', was loosely based on Selznick, to the point that Selznick contemplated suing the makers of the film for defamation.

Death

Selznick died on June 22, 1965 at age 63 following several heart attacks, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. There he joined his older brother Myron Selznick (who had died in 1944) in the family crypt. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, David O. Selznick has a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...

at 7000 Hollywood Blvd in front of the historic Hollywood Roosevelt hotel.

Filmography

Academy Awards and nominations

Footnotes

Sources

* Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson. ''The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. * Jewell, Richard B., with Vernon Harbin. ''The RKO Story''. New York: Arlington House/Crown, 1982. * Lasky, Betty (1989). ''RKO: The Biggest Little Major of Them All''. Santa Monica, Calif.: Roundtable. * Mueller, John (1986). ''Astaire Dancing: The Musical Films''. London: Hamish Hamilton. * Schatz, Thomas (1998

989 Year 989 (Roman numerals, CMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Basil II uses his contingent of 6,000 Varangians to he ...

. ''The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era''. London: Faber and Faber. * Thomson, David. ''Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick''. New York: Knopf, 1992.

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Selznick, David O. 1902 births 1965 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American businesspeople American film studio executives American male screenwriters American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Businesspeople from Pittsburgh California Republicans Columbia University alumni Film producers from California Film producers from Pennsylvania Jewish American screenwriters People from Beverly Hills, California Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Screenwriters from California Screenwriters from Pennsylvania 20th-century American Jews