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Mervyn LeRoy (/ l ə ˈ r ɔɪ /; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director, producer and actor. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies.
- 1928–1968
- 2, including Warner
- October 15, 1900, San Francisco, California, U.S.
- September 13, 1987 (aged 86), Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Overview. Born. October 15, 1900 · San Francisco, California, USA. Died. September 13, 1987 · Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (Alzheimer's disease) Height. 5′ 7½″ (1.71 m) Mini Bio. The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 was a tragedy for Mervyn LeRoy.
- October 15, 1900
- September 13, 1987
(Mervyn LeRoy o Le Roy; San Francisco, 1900 - Beverly Hills, 1987) Director de cine estadounidense de labor especialmente memorable en géneros como el melodrama y las películas de gángsters. Mervyn LeRoy se trasladó a Hollywood con diecinueve años y fue en sus comienzos encargado del vestuario, actor, ayudante de dirección sin acreditar ...
- Overview
- Early work
- At Warner Brothers in the 1930s: Little Caesar, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, and Gold Diggers of 1933
Mervyn LeRoy (born October 15, 1900, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died September 13, 1987, Beverly Hills, California) American motion-picture director whose wide variety of films included dramas, romances, epics, comedies, and musicals. He also produced films, including the classic The Wizard of Oz (1939).
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
After the LeRoy family home was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, LeRoy earned his first money by selling newspapers; that became his entreé to show business when one of his customers helped him get a part onstage as a newsboy. He performed in vaudeville as “the Singing Newsboy.” His cousin Jesse Lasky helped him get a job folding costumes at Famous Players–Lasky in 1919, and from there he ascended from lab technician to assistant cameraman. LeRoy managed a parallel career as an actor, often playing juveniles in films from 1922 to 1924.
After he outgrew those parts, LeRoy moved behind the scenes, writing gags (and sometimes more) for such Colleen Moore pictures as Sally (1925), Ella Cinders (1926), and Twinkletoes (1926). In 1927 Warner Brothers signed him to direct, and he commenced this most-important phase of his career with such low-budget efforts as Harold Teen (1928) and Oh Kay! (1928). Hot Stuff (1929), a comedy with Alice White, was his first sound picture, and White also starred in Broadway Babies (1929) and Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), an inside-Hollywood yarn with portions shot in Technicolor.
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Also in 1930 came Numbered Men, a prison drama, and Top Speed, a Joe E. Brown musical comedy. Then came Little Caesar (1931), the film that made LeRoy’s reputation, with Edward G. Robinson as a Capone-like crime czar. It stands as one of the seminal gangster pictures, along with William Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931) and Howard Hawks’s Scarface (1932).
Gentleman’s Fate, Too Young to Marry, and Broadminded, the latter another comedy with Brown, all followed in 1931, though none had the impact of Little Caesar. However, Five Star Final (1931) again had the benefit of Robinson, this time playing a hard-boiled newspaper editor whose ethics are twisted out of shape in his pursuit of higher circulation. Local Boy Makes Good, yet another vehicle for Brown, and Tonight or Never completed LeRoy’s slate for 1931—seven releases, an impressive figure even by the standards of the time. High Pressure (1932) offered William Powell in top comic form as a promoter trying to find investors for an artificial rubber process, and Two Seconds (1932) had Robinson playing a convicted murderer who has just moments to relive his miserable existence before the electric chair ends it all.
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Big City Blues (1932), a modest crime yarn, starred Eric Linden and Joan Blondell, and the melodrama Three on a Match (1932) starred Blondell, Bette Davis, and Ann Dvorak as childhood friends who reunite as adults just in time for one of them to meet a tragic fate. One of LeRoy’s most notable films was I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), a blistering adaptation of Robert E. Burns’s account of his horrible experiences in a Georgia prison camp. The film and Paul Muni’s harrowing portrayal of the unjustly imprisoned convict were nominated for Academy Awards. Hard to Handle (1933) did not have any such social consciousness but remains a fine example of Warner Brothers’s pre-Production Code comedies, with James Cagney as a press agent who will promote anything and everything.
Elmer, the Great (1933) had Brown as a very un-Ruthian home-run slugger, but it was the musical Gold Diggers of 1933 that became a classic. A follow-up to 42nd Street (1933), it had essentially the same cast and dance director Busby Berkeley, who staged such memorable production numbers as “We’re in the Money,” “Remember My Forgotten Man,” and “Pettin’ in the Park.” Tugboat Annie (1933), starring Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, was another smash. LeRoy’s fifth release of 1933 was The World Changes, a soap opera starring Muni as a meatpacking tycoon and Mary Astor as his snobbish wife.
- Michael Barson
Mervyn LeRoy was an eminent American film director and producer. He made films of various genres like drama, romance, comedy, and musical. He began his career by selling newspapers and worked his way into show business. When he went to Hollywood, he gradually found work as an actor playing juvenile roles in silent films.
Mervyn LeRoy. Producer: The Wizard of Oz. The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 was a tragedy for Mervyn LeRoy. While he and his father managed to survive, they lost everything they had. To make money, LeRoy sold newspapers and entered talent contests as a singer.
Mervyn LeRoy ( San Francisco, 15 de octubre de 1900 - Beverly Hills, 13 de septiembre de 1987) fue un director de cine, así como productor estadounidense que logró grandes éxitos. Carrera. Mervyn LeRoy nació de padres judío americanos en San Francisco, California.
