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1-6 of 6
- Producer
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- Director
Billionaire businessman, film producer, film director, and aviator, born in Humble, Texas just north of Houston. He studied at two prestigious institutions of higher learning: Rice University in Houston and California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Inherited his father's machine tool company in 1923. In 1926 he ventured into films, producing Hell's Angels (1930), Scarface (1932) and The Outlaw (1943). He also founded his own aircraft company, designed, built and flew his own aircraft, and broke several world air speed records (1935-1938). His most famous aircraft, the Hercules (nicknamed "The Spruce Goose"), which was as he discovered, an under-powered wooden seaplane designed to carry 750 passengers. That plane was completed in 1947, but flew only once over a distance of one mile despite having eight Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major engines, among the most powerful radial piston engines of the day. Throughout his life he shunned publicity, eventually becoming a recluse but still controlling his vast business interests from sealed-off hotel suites, and giving rise to endless rumors and speculation. In 1971 an "authorized" biography was announced, but the authors wound up in prison for fraud, and the mystery surrounding him continued until his death in Houston. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Houston- Writer
- Producer
- Production Manager
Harvard graduate Robert Lord studied English literature and playwriting in George Pierce Baker's renowned Workshop 47. He subsequently put this training into practice as a story writer for the New Yorker. Before long, one of his contributions, The Lucky Horseshoe (1925), attracted the attention of Hollywood producers and motivated Lord to relocate to the West Coast. After work on Tom Mix westerns, he soon landed a prestige assignment in the shape of the disaster epic The Johnstown Flood (1926), a palpable box office success, for which Lord wrote the original story. His hard-edged style of prose impressed Warner Brothers, who signed him under contract in 1927.
A favorite of production manager Hal B. Wallis, Lord remained at the studio until 1941, by which time he had won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for One Way Passage (1932) and been nominated for another, the controversial social drama Black Legion (1937), a hard-hitting indictment of bigotry and mob rule. Lord again wrote the original story and also served as associate producer. A hit with both critics and audiences, the picture starred Humphrey Bogart, who, at the time was merely another contract player in danger of being typecast as heavies in run-of-the-mill potboilers. "Black Legion" reaffirmed Bogart's star qualities and he never forgot the role Robert Lord had played in rescuing his career.
Following the death of Mark Hellinger in 1947, Bogart went out of his way to procure Lord as vice-president of his independent Santana Productions. In his new role as Santana's main producer, Lord was given carte blanche to hire such experienced writers as Daniel Taradash and John Monks Jr. (for Knock on Any Door (1949)). He was also instrumental in acquiring the rights for suitable literary material, best of which was In a Lonely Place (1950), based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. While Lord was never officially credited with writing any of Santana's screenplays, he was nonetheless significantly involved in their early development (as, for example, in defining the character of Dixon Steele). On the flip side, Lord's friendship with Bogart rather clouded his objectivity in that he frequently interfered in the creative process by insisting on editorial revisions (particularly, whenever he felt the star's character was not portrayed in a sufficiently sympathetic light).
After Bogart sold his interest in Santana to Columbia in 1955, Lord effectively retired from the film industry. He died in April 1976 in Los Angeles at the age of seventy-five.- Helmut Früchtenicht was born on 11 October 1920 in Bremen, Germany. He was an actor, known for Champagner für Zimmer 17 (1969), Hot Hungry School Girls (1972) and Der Bettenstudent oder Was mach' ich mit den Mädchen? (1970). He died on 5 April 1976 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany.
- Wilder Penfield was born on 26 January 1891 in Spokane, Washington, USA. He died on 5 April 1976 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- Rebecca Yancey Williams was born on 22 June 1895 in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA. Rebecca Yancey was a writer, known for The Vanishing Virginian (1942). Rebecca Yancey died on 5 April 1976 in Richmond, Virginia, USA.
- Producer
- Actor
- Music Department
Meyer Davis was born on 10 January 1893 in Ellicott City, Maryland, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Strange Case of Hennessy (1933), The Knife of the Party (1934) and Henry the Ache (1934). He died on 5 April 1976 in New York City, New York, USA.