Hal B. Wallis

Hal B. Wallis
Born	Harold Brent Wallis September 14, 1898(1898-09-14) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	October 5, 1986(1986-10-05) (aged 88) Rancho Mirage, California
Spouse	Louise Fazenda (1927-1962) (one son Brent) Martha Hyer (1966-1986) (his death)

Hal B. Wallis (born Harold Brent Wallis; September 14, 1898 – October 5, 1986) was an American film producer. He is known for producing Casablanca, and other important films featuring actors such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley, John Wayne and many others.

Career

Harold Brent Wallis was born in Chicago in 1898. His family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros. in 1923.

Within a few years, Wallis became involved in the production end of the business and would eventually become head of production at Warners. In a career that spanned more than fifty years, he was involved with the production of more than 400 feature-length movies.

Among the many significant movies he produced was Casablanca, one of the most honored movies in Hollywood history. Others include: Dark Victory, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Now, Voyager, The Maltese Falcon and Sergeant York. Wallis left Warner Bros. in 1944, after a clash with Jack Warner over Warner's acceptance of the Best Picture Oscar to Casablanca, to work as an independent producer, enjoying considerable success both commercially and critically. The first screenwriters he hired for his new enterprise were Ayn Rand and Lillian Hellman. Among his financial hits were the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies, and several of Elvis Presley's movies. He produced True Grit, for which John Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor of 1969, and its sequel. He also produced Mary, Queen of Scots, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson, and Anne of the Thousand Days, starring Richard Burton.

Hal Wallis received sixteen Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, winning for Casablanca in 1943. For his consistently high quality of motion picture production, he was twice honored with the Academy Awards' Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was also nominated for seven Golden Globe awards, twice winning awards for Best Picture. In 1975, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.

Marriages

Hal Wallis was married twice, to actress Louise Fazenda (1927–1962) and to actress Martha Hyer (1966–1986).

Death

He died in Rancho Mirage, California, aged 88. He is interred in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California.

In popular culture

Wallis was portrayed by actor Bill Lake in the 2002 CBS television film Martin and Lewis.

Selected filmography

• Little Caesar (1931)
• Central Airport (1933)
• The Petrified Forest (1936)
• Kid Galahad (1937)
• West of Shanghai (1937)
• The Invisible Menace (1938)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
• Dark Victory (1939)
• The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
• Castle on the Hudson (1940)
• Santa Fe Trail (1940)
• Sergeant York (1941)
• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Now, Voyager (1942)
• Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
• This Is the Army (1943)
• Love Letters (1945)
• You Came Along (1945)
• Desert Fury (1947)
• So Evil My Love (1948)
• Dark City (1950)
• The Furies (1950)
• The Rainmaker (1956)
• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
• Loving You (1957)
• King Creole (1958)
• Career (1959)
• G.I. Blues (1960)
• Blue Hawaii (1961)
• Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
• Fun in Acapulco (1963)
• Summer and Smoke (1961)
• Wives and Lovers (1963)
• Becket (1964)
• Roustabout (1964)
• Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
• Barefoot in the Park (1967)
• Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)
• True Grit (1969)
• Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
• Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
• Rooster Cogburn (1975)

Academy Awards

Year	Award	Film	Winner
1931–32	Outstanding Production	Five Star Final	Irving Thalberg – Grand Hotel
1932–33		I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang	Winfield Sheehan – Cavalcade
1934		Flirtation Walk	Harry Cohn – It Happened One Night
1935		Captain Blood	Irving Thalberg and Albert Lewin – Mutiny on the Bounty
1938		The Adventures of Robin Hood	Frank Capra – You Can't Take It With You
		Four Daughters
		Jezebel
1940		All This, and Heaven Too	David O. Selznick – Rebecca
		The Letter
1941	Outstanding Motion Picture	The Maltese Falcon	Darryl F. Zanuck – How Green Was My Valley
		One Foot in Heaven
		Sergeant York
1942		Kings Row	Sidney Franklin – Mrs. Miniver
		Yankee Doodle Dandy
1943		Casablanca	Won
		Watch on the Rhine	Hal B. Wallis – Casablanca
1955	Best Motion Picture	The Rose Tattoo	Harold Hecht – Marty
1964	Best Picture	Becket	Jack Warner – My Fair Lady
1969		Anne of the Thousand Days	Jerome Hellman – Midnight Cowboy

1938 and 1943 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Awards

References

• Hal B. Wallis at the TCM Movie Database

External links

• Hal B. Wallis at the Internet Movie Database
• Hal B. Wallis at the TCM Movie Database