Arthur Hornblow Jr. (March 15, 1893 – July 17, 1976) was an American film producer.

Biography

Hornblow was the son of Arthur Hornblow Sr. (1865–1942), a writer who edited ''Theatre Magazine'' in New York City. Hornblow graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, New York City, in 1911, before studying at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

and

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...

, and was a member of the fraternity Theta Delta Chi. He served in counter-intelligence during World War I, and then tried his hand at playwriting. He was then hired as a production supervisor by

Sam Goldwyn Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor an ...

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

in 1927. Initially, he specialized in the popular

screwball comedies Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characterist ...

, eventually giving

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Holl ...

his first directing job, and producing several films starring

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...

. These included ''The Cat and the Canary'' (1939), ''The Ghost Breakers'' (1940) and ''Nothing But the Truth'' (1941). In 1942 he moved to

MGM 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 a ...

where he produced ''Gaslight'' and several

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

. In the 1950s, now an independent producer rather than a studio employee, he worked on the musical ''Oklahoma'' and the courtroom drama ''Witness for the Prosecution'', directed by his former Paramount colleague, Billy Wilder. He gave aspiring actress Marie Windsor her first screen test, and Constance Ockelman her new name, Veronica Lake.

Oscar nominations

As a producer he was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

'Best Picture' Oscar four times, but failed to win. * '' Ruggles of Red Gap'' (1935), comedy-western with

Charles Laughton Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future w ...

. * ''

Hold Back the Dawn ''Hold Back the Dawn'' is a 1941 American romantic drama film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her. It stars Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havi ...

'' (1941), romantic-comedy with

Charles Boyer Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...

and

Olivia de Havilland Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. ...

. * '' Gaslight'' (1944), thriller with

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 often ...

, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten. * ''

Witness for the Prosecution In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...

'' (1957), courtroom drama with Charles Laughton,

Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include '' Jesse James'', ...

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

, and Elsa Lanchester.

Remembrance

He allowed a version of his last name be used by

C. S. Forester Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (27 August 1899 – 2 April 1966), known by his pen name Cecil Scott "C. S." Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series depicting a Roya ...

(who, together with

Niven Busch Niven Busch (April 26, 1903 – August 25, 1991) was an American novelist and screenwriter of movies such as the acclaimed '' The Postman Always Rings Twice''. His novels included ''Duel in the Sun'' (1944) and ''California Street'' (1959). H ...

, was a scriptwriter for one of the films he directed) for the fictional sea captain

Horatio Hornblower Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films, radio and television programmes, an ...

Selected filmography

* '' Four Hours to Kill!'' (1935) * ''

The Princess Comes Across ''The Princess Comes Across'' is a 1936 mystery/comedy film directed by William K. Howard and starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray, the second of the four times they were paired together. Lombard, playing an actress from Brooklyn pretend ...

'' (1936) * '' Easy Living'' (1937) * ''

High, Wide, and Handsome ''High, Wide and Handsome'' is a 1937 American musical Western film starring Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Alan Hale, Sr., Charles Bickford and Dorothy Lamour. The film was directed by Rouben Mamoulian and written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Geor ...

'' (1937) * ''

Midnight Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours. ...

'' (1939) * '' The Cat and the Canary'' (1939) * '' The Ghost Breakers'' (1940) * '' Arise, My Love'' (1940) * ''

The Major and the Minor ''The Major and the Minor'' is a 1942 American comedy film starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. It was the first American film directed by Billy Wilder. The screenplay credited to Wilder and Charles Brackett is "suggested by" the 1923 play ''C ...

'' (1942) * '' Gaslight'' (1944) * ''

Desire Me ''Desire Me'' is a 1947 American drama film starring Robert Mitchum and Greer Garson. It had a troubled production that included numerous directors and rewrites, and was ultimately released without a credited director. Plot In Paris, Marise Au ...

'' (1947) * ''

The Hucksters ''The Hucksters'' is a 1947 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film directed by Jack Conway starring Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr, her debut in an American film. The supporting cast includes Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Ava Gardner, Keenan Wynn, and ...

'' (1947) * ''

Cass Timberlane ''Cass Timberlane'' is a 1947 romantic drama film starring Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner and Zachary Scott and directed by George Sidney. It was based on the 1945 novel ''Cass Timberlane: A Novel of Husbands and Wives'' by Sinclair Lewis, which was ...

'' (1947 film) * '' The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950) * '' Million Dollar Mermaid'' (1952) * '' Oklahoma!'' (1955) * ''

The War Lover ''The War Lover'' is a 1962 British war film directed by Philip Leacock and written by Howard Koch (screenwriter), Howard Koch loosely based on the 1959 novel by John Hersey, altering the names of characters and events but retaining its basic f ...

'' (1962)

Books by Arthur and Leonora Hornblow

* ''Animals Do the Strangest Things'', illus.

Michael K. Frith Michael Kingsbury Frith (born 8 July 1941) is a British artist and television producer. He is the former Executive Vice-President and Creative Director of The Jim Henson Company. His contributions to Muppet projects have been extensive and vari ...

(Random House, 1964), 62 pp., The Hornblows, Frith, and Random House collaborated to produce numerous sequels, ''Birds Do the Strangest Things'' (1965), and so on.

Books by Arthur Hornblow

* ''A History of the Theatre in America From its Beginnings to the Present Time Vol. 1'' (J.B. Lippincott Company, 1919), * ''A History of the Theatre in America From its Beginnings to the Present Time Vol. 2'' (J.B. LIppincott Company, 1919),

References

External links

* * * (U.S. only) * * ; * ; {{DEFAULTSORT:Hornblow, Arthur Jr. 1893 births 1976 deaths Film producers from New York (state) Children's non-fiction writers Dartmouth College alumni DeWitt Clinton High School alumni New York Law School alumni