Hal B. Wallis

Hal B Wallis is one of the most renowned producers of the American film industry.

Born on 14 September 1898 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, he was the son of Eva and Jacob Wolowicz. He married twice in his lifetime, first to Late Actress Louise Fazenda and after her death to Late Martha Hyer.

Wallis and his second wife, Martha Hyer  had one son Brent Wallis, a psychologist.

Wallis has had a long and a fascinating career of 50 years in which he was involved in more than 400 full-length movies.

In 1992, with the shifting of his family to Los Angeles, Wallis found work at Warner Bros, a publicity department. It was at Warners where he was bitten by the bug of cinema. Later he became the head of the production at Warner.

In 1944, after a stint of 22 years with Warner Bros, he left and started working as an independent producer.

As an independent producer, he made various movies like Dean Martin, True Grit (award winning), etc.

Later, he worked with numerous production houses like Universal Pictures and with top actors of that period and directed many award-winning movies like Mary, Queen of Scots, Casablanca, Anne of the thousand, etc.

Hal’s movie Casablancawon Outstanding Motion Picture Award in 1943. His movies were nominated for various awards for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Motion Picture, Best Motion Picture, and also for Best Picture. He has been honoured twice for his consistently exceptional contribution to the world of cinema with the Academy’s Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award (1938 and 1943) and was also nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards out of which he won two.

He also made a significant contribution to the famous book “Easy Come, Easy Go”.

Wallis also published an autobiography in his last days. This autobiography is co -written by Charles Hingham.

His life came to an end on 5 Oct 1986 because of diabetes in Rancho Mirage, California.