Irving Thalberg

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Irving Thalberg
Born	Irving Grant Thalberg May 30, 1899 Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died	September 14, 1936 (aged 37) Santa Monica, California, USA
Years active	1921-1936
Spouse(s)	Norma Shearer (1927-1936)

Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an Academy Award-winning American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff, and make very profitable films.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Death 3 Legacy 4 In popular culture 5 Filmography 5.1 Producer 5.2 Writer 6 Awards 7 Footnotes 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] Biography

Thalberg was born in Brooklyn, New York to German Jewish immigrant parents. He had a bad heart and was plagued with other ailments all his life. Upon completing high school, he was employed by Universal Pictures' New York office, where he worked as personal secretary to legendary studio founder Carl Laemmle, the boss of Universal Studios. Irving Thalberg was bright and persistent, and by age 21 was executive in charge of production at Universal City, the studio's California production site.

He quickly established his tenacity as he battled with Erich von Stroheim over the length of Foolish Wives (1922), and controlled every aspect of the production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). In 1924, he left Universal for Louis B. Mayer Productions, which shortly thereafter linked up with Metro Pictures Corporation to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The Big Parade (1925), directed by King Vidor, was Thalberg's first major triumph at MGM. Until 1932, when he suffered a major heart attack, he supervised every important MGM studio production, and combined careful pre-production groundwork with prerelease sneak previews which measured audience response. At the time he joined Metro Pictures, Thalberg was dating actress Norma Shearer, whom he married in 1927. She considered early retirement after having her second child with Thalberg, but he was convinced he could continue to find good roles for her and encouraged her to continue acting. She went on to be MGM's biggest star of the 1930s. Their two children were Irving Jr. (1930 – 1988) and Katherine (1935 – 2006).

Upon Thalberg's illness, Louis B. Mayer, who had come to resent Thalberg's power and success, replaced him with David O. Selznick and Walter Wanger. When he returned to work in 1933, it was as one of the studio's unit producers. Nonetheless, he helped develop some of MGM's most prestigious ventures, including Grand Hotel (1932), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), China Seas (1935), A Night at the Opera (1935) with the Marx Brothers, San Francisco (1936), and Romeo and Juliet (1936).

[edit] Death

Thalberg died of pneumonia at age 37 in Santa Monica, California.^[1] At the time of his death, he was working on the preproduction of A Day at the Races (1937) and Marie Antoinette (1938).

Thalberg is buried in a private marble tomb in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, lying at rest beside his wife Norma Shearer Arrouge (Thalberg's crypt was engraved, "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer).

[edit] Legacy

Thalberg's name appeared on the screen in only two of the pictures he produced, both of which were completed after he died. While he was alive, he refused to allow his own name to appear in his films. The credit for his final film, The Good Earth (1937) reads: "To the Memory of Irving Grant Thalberg his last greatest achievement we dedicate this picture." Another dedication to him appeared in the opening credits of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), a film that Thalberg set into motion, but never lived to see.

Thalberg, a good friend of the Marx Brothers and responsible for saving their careers, once sent this often-repeated quote to Groucho Marx via letter on the latter's birthday: "The world would not be in such a snarl, if Marx had been Groucho instead of Karl."

In 1938, the multi-million dollar administration building built on the old MGM Studios in Culver City – now Sony Pictures Studios – was named for Thalberg. The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is also named for him.

[edit] In popular culture

F. Scott Fitzgerald based the character of Monroe Stahr in The Last Tycoon on Thalberg. In the 1976 film version he was played by Robert De Niro. Thalberg was portrayed in the movie Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) by Robert Evans, who later was the producer of Chinatown (1974) and The Godfather (1972).

In an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, the Universal Pictures of the silent era is depicted, along with characterizations of Irving Thalberg, John Ford, Erich von Stroheim, Carl Laemmle, and Jack Warner.

In a sketch from the British TV comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, a high-profile, egotistical movie producer named Irving C. Salzberg (played by Graham Chapman) pitches a movie to a team of yesmen writers. Contrary to Thalberg's tendency to not credit himself, the end credits of this episode (which came right after this sketch) credited him for nearly everything, and all the names were slightly changed to look more like Irving C. Salzberg (such as John C. Cleeseburg).

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Producer

[edit] Writer

• The Trap (1922)
• The Dangerous Little Demon (1922)

[edit] Awards

Year	Award	Result	Category	Film
1928	Academy Award	Won	Best Picture	The Broadway Melody
1923	Photoplay Awards		Medal of Honor	The Big Parade
1932				Smilin' Through
1934				The Barretts of Wimpole Street

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (January 2009)

• The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. Thomas Schatz. Pantheon Books, New York, 1988.

[edit] Further reading

• Thalberg: Life and Legend by Bob Thomas (1969)
• Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of M-G-M by Roland Flamini (1994)
• Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-believe Saints by Samuel Marx (1975)
• Irving Thalberg's MGM by Mark Vieira (2008)

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Irving Thalberg

• Irving Thalberg at the Internet Movie Database
• Irving Thalberg at Allmovie
• Irving Thalberg at the TCM Movie Database
• Cinemagraphe Review of the Roland Flamini biography of Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of MGM
• Irving Thalberg at Find a Grave

Persondata
NAME	Thalberg, Irving
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Thalberg, Irving Grant
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Film producer
DATE OF BIRTH	May 30, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brooklyn, New York
DATE OF DEATH	September 14, 1936
PLACE OF DEATH	Santa Monica, California