Mervyn LeRoy

Mervyn LeRoy
Born	October 15, 1900(1900-10-15) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	September 13, 1987(1987-09-13) (aged 86) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1927-1968
Spouse	Edna Murphy (1927-1933) Doris Warner (1934-1942) Kitty Spiegel (1946-?)

Mervyn LeRoy (October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.

Early life

Born to Jewish parents^[1] in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake. (His paternal grandfather owned a successful San Francisco department store that was destroyed in the quake; the store was heavily insured, but the insurance company went bankrupt in the aftermath of the earthquake.) To make money, young Mervyn sold newspapers and entered talent shows as a singer. Through this he worked his way into vaudeville. When his act broke up, he and his cousin, Jesse Lasky, went to Hollywood.

Career

LeRoy worked in costumes, processing labs and as a camera assistant until he became a gag writer and actor in silent films. His first directing job was in 1927's No Place to Go. When his movies made lots of money without costing too much, he became well-received in the movie business.

In 1931 he directed two key films which launched Edward G. Robinson into major stardom, the Oscar-nominated critique of tabloid journalism Five Star Final, and the classic gangster epic Little Caesar. From that point forward, LeRoy would be responsible for a diverse variety of films as a director and producer. In 1938 he was chosen as head of production at MGM, where he was responsible for the decision to make The Wizard of Oz. He was responsible for discovering Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Robert Mitchum and Lana Turner.

In the 1950s LeRoy directed such musicals as Lovely to Look At, Million Dollar Mermaid, Latin Lovers and Rose Marie. He moved to Warner Brothers, where he was responsible for such famous films as Mister Roberts, The Bad Seed, No Time for Sergeants, The FBI Story and Gypsy.

He was nominated in 1943 for Best Director for Random Harvest. and also in 1940 as the producer of The Wizard of Oz. In addition, he received an honorary Oscar in 1946 for The House I Live In, "for tolerance short subject", and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1976.

Later life

LeRoy retired in 1965 and wrote his autobiography, Take One, in 1974. He died in Beverly Hills, California and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.

A fan of Thoroughbred horse racing, Mervyn LeRoy was a founding investor in Hollywood Park Racetrack and a member of the track's Board of Directors from 1941 until his death in 1986.^[2] In partnership with father-in-law, Harry Warner, he operated a racing stable, W-L Ranch Co., during the 1940s/50s.^{[citation needed]}

His son, Warner LeRoy, became a well-known restaurateur.

Partial filmography

Little Caesar (1931) Five Star Final (1931) Tonight or Never (1931) Two Seconds (1932) Three on a Match (1932) I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) High Pressure (1932) Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) Tugboat Annie (1933) The World Changes (1933) I Found Stella Parish (1935) Anthony Adverse (1936) Waterloo Bridge (1940) Escape (1940) Blossoms in the Dust (1941) Johnny Eager (1942) Random Harvest (1942)

Madame Curie (1943) Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) The House I Live In (1945) Without Reservations (1946) Homecoming (1948) Little Women (1949) Quo Vadis (1951) Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) Latin Lovers (1953) Mister Roberts (1955) The Bad Seed (1956) Toward the Unknown (1956) No Time for Sergeants (1958) The FBI Story (1959) A Majority of One (1961) Gypsy (1962)

References

1. ^ Mervyn LeRoy - Biography, Bruce Eder, Allmovie
2. ^ Hollywood Park History

External links

• Mervyn LeRoy at the Internet Movie Database
• Mervyn LeRoy at the TCM Movie Database
• Mervyn LeRoy at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Leroy, Mervyn
Alternative names
Short description	American film director
Date of birth	October 15, 1900
Place of birth	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Date of death	September 13, 1987 (aged 86)
Place of death	Beverly Hills, California, U.S.