Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn or Samuel Goldfish or Mister Malaprop born to a Polish middle-class family in Warsaw is one famous Jewish American film director. His father was Aaron David Gelbfisz and mother was Hanna Reban. Goldwyn is considered to be one of the most successful independent producers in the United States. Being a much ambitious person, he left his homeland and went to the U.S to earn a better living. Gradually he acquired marketing skills and owned the position of vice president of sales in a reputed firm called the Elite Glove Company, but somewhere he was still not satisfied. Hence to quench his thirst to achieve more he came up with the idea of producing films.

In 1913, along with Jesse L. Lasky, Cecil B. DE Mille, and Arthur, he ventured to propagate motion pictures of feature lengths. Finally in 1916, after being associated with the famous producers of Broadways, Edgar, and Archibald Selwyn, he succeeded in making his own enterprise named Goldwyn Pictures. Besides forging a successful career in sales, he was an ace in film production too. There are series of films to talk about under his production banner, the very first being potash and Perl mutter, released in 1923. The first thirty-five years of his career was associated with William Wyler, who directed many of his lionized productions and also with writers like Ben Hecht, Sidney Howard, Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman.

The movie 'Arrowsmith' directed by John Ford in alliance with Goldwyn, bagged Oscar nomination for the best picture. He also received Arts Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion picture. His drama 'The best years of our lives' also bagged the Oscar for best picture. Goldwyn has an immense contribution in making musicals too, most notably 'The guys and dolls'. The producer has also worked with actors of African-American origin which helped in bridging the cultural gaps.