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Walter Mirisch

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Walter Mirisch
Born
Walter Mortimer Mirisch

(1921-11-08) November 8, 1921 (age 102)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationFilm producer
Spouse
Patricia Kahan
​
(died 2005)​
Children3
RelativesMarvin Mirisch (brother)
Harold Mirisch (half-brother)
John A. Mirisch (half-great-nephew)
Awards
  • Academy Award for Best Picture as producer of In the Heat of the Night (1967)
  • Producer of the Year Award, Producers' Guild of America (1967)

    • Walter Mortimer Mirisch (born November 8, 1921) is an American film producer. He is president and executive head of production of The Mirisch Corporation, an independent film production company, which he formed in 1957 with his brother Marvin and half-brother Harold.[1] He won the Academy Award for Best Picture as producer of In the Heat of the Night (1967).[2][3]

    Life and career

    Early years

    Born to a Jewish family[4] in New York,[5] Mirisch is the youngest of three sons born to Josephine Frances (née Urbach) and Max Mirisch.[6] His siblings include film producer Marvin.[7][8] His father emigrated from Kraków in 1891 at the age of 17, arriving in New York City where he worked as a tailor.[5] His mother was the daughter of immigrants from Hungary and Poland.[5] His father was previously married to Flora Glasshut with whom he had two sons; she died of cancer at the age of 40.[5] Mirisch graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and entered the movie business as a summer vacation usher in Jersey City's State Theater, soon moving up to higher positions at other theaters.

    A heart murmur kept him out of the Navy, but Mirisch was still eager to serve his country during World War II. He moved to Burbank, California, to work at a bomber-plane plant, where he wrote technical articles, sharing knowledge with other military manufacturers.[9] After the war ended, Mirisch immediately turned his attention back to his original passion, the movies. In 1942, he received a BA degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the following year graduated from Harvard's Graduate School of Business Administration.[10] He produced his first film, Fall Guy (1947), for Monogram Pictures.[10]

    Career

    At the age of 29, Mirisch became production head at Allied Artists Studio, initially only a division of Monogram, with some 30 films to oversee. During his tenure, he found time to personally produce Flat Top (1952), Wichita (1955), which received a Golden Globe from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as Best Outdoor Drama of 1955, The First Texan (1956), and An Annapolis Story (1955). Among other films, he supervised the productions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Friendly Persuasion (both 1956), and the Billy Wilder-directed Love in the Afternoon (1957).

    Mirisch heads that category of creative producers who have learned their craft thoroughly from the very inception of a project through all phases of its production process. Known in the industry as a perfectionist, he supervises every detail of his films from the earliest stages to the final release.

    The Mirisch Company was founded in 1957.[11] It produced 68 films for United Artists, including three that won the Academy Award for Best Picture – The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961) and In the Heat of the Night (1967), which also won four other Oscars.[6][3] Among the most noteworthy Mirisch projects that Walter personally produced are: Man of the West (1958); The Magnificent Seven (1960); Two for the Seesaw (1962); Toys in the Attic (1963); the film version of James A. Michener's monumental novel, Hawaii (1966), which was nominated for seven Oscars, and its sequel, The Hawaiians (1970); Midway (1976), the saga of America's greatest naval victory; the tender and moving Same Time, Next Year (1978); and Romantic Comedy (1983).

    For NBC television network, Mirisch was executive producer of Wichita Town with Joel McCrea (1959–1960), Peter Loves Mary (1960–1961), Desperado; Return of Desperado; Desperado: Avalanche At Devil’s Ridge; Desperado: Legacy; Desperado: Sole Survivor; and in 1993, Troubleshooters: Trapped Beneath The Earth. Mirisch was executive producer of Lily in Winter for the USA Network in 1994, A Class for Life for ABC in 1995, as well as The Magnificent Seven, a weekly series for CBS in 1997.

    Ron Howard has said of Mirisch, "From Bomba, the Jungle Boy to Some Like It Hot and In the Heat of the Night . . . Walter Mirisch produced many of the films which dazzled and inspired me (and I'm not kidding about Bomba. I loved those movies as a kid). When I later acted in one of his (lesser) productions, The Spikes Gang, I learned that a prolific and brilliant producer could also be a terrific guy and a wonderful teacher."[5]

    Honors and awards

    Mirisch received the 1967 Academy Award for Best Picture for his production of In the Heat of the Night.[3]

    Throughout the years, he has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including The Producer of the Year Award: first, from the Producers' Guild of America (1967); later, the National Association of Theatre Owners (1972); and then ShowaRama (1975).

    In addition, he received the Cecil B. DeMille Award of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" (1976), the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his "consistently high quality of motion picture production (1978), and the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which is given to an individual whose "humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry" (1983).

    Mirisch has served three terms as president of the Producers Guild of America. He served four terms as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is a former president and Governor of the Performing Arts Council of the Los Angeles Music Center, as well as a trustee of the Motion Picture and Television Fund. Mirisch is also an Emeritus member of the board of directors of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of Los Angeles, and the board of directors of the UCLA Foundation.

    He was decorated by the Republic of France with its Order of Arts and Letters in 1961.

    In May 1989, he received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In June 1989, he was the recipient of the UCLA Medal, the university's highest award.

    In 2004, he was honored with a retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art entitled "The Magnificent Mirisches". The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York honored him in 2006 with a retrospective of twelve films.

    On February 2, 2008, Mirisch presented the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year award at the 19th Annual Producers Guild of America Awards. The top honor (the equivalent of the Academy Award for Best Picture) went to Scott Rudin, Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men.

    Personal life

    He was married to Patricia Kahan (1924–2005); they had three children, Anne Mirisch Sonnenberg, Andrew Mirisch and Lawrence Mirisch.[12] His son, Lawrence, is the founder of the Mirisch Agency.[4] Mirisch turned 100 on November 8, 2021.[13]

    Selected filmography

    Year Title Notes
    1958 Fort Massacre producer
    Man of the West producer
    1959 The Gunfight at Dodge City producer
    The Man in the Net producer
    Cast a Long Shadow producer
    1960 The Magnificent Seven executive producer
    1961 By Love Possessed producer
    West Side Story executive producer (uncredited)
    The Children's Hour executive producer (uncredited)
    1962 Follow That Dream executive producer
    Kid Galahad executive producer (uncredited)
    Two for the Seesaw producer
    1963 The Great Escape executive producer (uncredited)
    Toys in the Attic producer
    The Pink Panther executive producer (uncredited)
    1964 633 Squadron executive producer (uncredited)
    A Shot in the Dark executive producer (uncredited)
    1966 The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming producer (uncredited)
    Hawaii producer
    1967 How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying executive producer (uncredited)
    In the Heat of the Night producer
    Fitzwilly producer
    1968 The Party executive producer (uncredited)
    The Thomas Crown Affair executive producer (uncredited)
    1969 Sinful Davey executive producer
    Some Kind of a Nut producer
    1970 Halls of Anger executive producer
    The Landlord executive producer (uncredited)
    The Hawaiians producer
    They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! executive producer
    1971 The Organization producer
    Fiddler on the Roof executive producer (uncredited)
    1973 Scorpio producer
    1974 The Spikes Gang producer
    Mr. Majestyk producer
    1976 Midway producer
    1978 Gray Lady Down producer
    Same Time, Next Year producer
    1979 Dracula producer
    The Prisoner of Zenda producer
    1983 Romantic Comedy producer
    1993-1996 The Pink Panther executive producer
    2016 The Magnificent Seven executive producer

    Bibliography

    • Mirisch, Walter (2008). I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-22640-4.

    References

    1. ^ King, Susan (June 17, 2008). "Career stories from a storied producer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
    2. ^ Gaydos, Steven (February 3, 2015). "Walter Mirisch Looks Back on His First Producing Credit". Variety. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
    3. ^ a b c "The 40th Academy Awards". www.oscars.org. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
    4. ^ a b Jewish Journal: "At Pepperdine, ruminations on Hollywood’s patrimony straight from its (Jewish) patriarchy" by Danielle Berrin October 6, 2013 | cached version at Archived December 22, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
    5. ^ a b c d e Mirisch, Walter. "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History". University of Wisconsin Press. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
    6. ^ a b Douglas Martin, Marvin Mirisch, 84, Hollywood Producer of 60's, The New York Times, November 20, 2002
    7. ^ "Mirisch Brothers, Harold (1907–1968), Marvin (1918–2002), and Walter (1921– ) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
    8. ^ independent, Susan King Susan King is a former entertainment writer at the Los Angeles Times who specialized in Classic Hollywood stories She also wrote about; foreign; Movies, Studio; TV, occasionally; Orange, theater stories Born in East; N.J.; History, She Received Her Master’s Degree in Film; Examiner, criticism at USC She worked for 10 years at the L. A. Herald; in 2016, came to work at The Times in January 1990 She left (June 17, 2008). "Walter Mirisch, his memoir and memories". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 11, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
    9. ^ Walter Mirisch: The Magnificent Mirisch. Alumnipark.com. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
    10. ^ a b Gaydos
    11. ^ King
    12. ^ "Patricia Kahan Mirisch". Los Angeles Times. May 3, 2005.
    13. ^ Hammond, Pete (November 8, 2021). "Happy Birthday, Walter Mirisch: Oldest Living Oscar Winner Turns 100 Today; His Films Include 'West Side Story', 'The Apartment' & 'In The Heat Of The Night'". Deadline. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
    • Jeanine Basinger (2008). "Walter Mirisch". filmreference. Retrieved January 8, 2009.

    External links

    Non-profit organization positions
    Preceded by President of Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences
    1973–1977     		Succeeded by
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