Daniel Melnick was an American film producer and film studio executive who started working in Hollywood as a teenager in television and then became the producer of such films as All That Jazz, Altered States and Straw Dogs.
14 Facts About Daniel Melnick
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Daniel Melnick was born on April 21,1932, in New York City, the son of Celia and Benjamin Daniel Melnick, Jewish immigrants from Russia.
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Daniel Melnick's father was killed in a car crash when Melnick was a child.
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Daniel Melnick served in the United States Army during the 1950s, where he produced entertainment for troops while stationed at New Jersey's Fort Dix and in Oklahoma.
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ABC paid for a pilot episode, but did not purchase the series, so Daniel Melnick turned to Grant Tinker at NBC, who had Don Adams under contract and were looking for a project for the comedian.
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Together with Joseph E Levine of Embassy Pictures, Susskind and Melnick produced the Broadway theatre musical comedy Kelly, by Eddie Lawrence and Mark Charlap.
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Daniel Melnick was hired by MGM as head of production in February 1972.
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Daniel Melnick was hired by Columbia Pictures as its president in June 1978 to replace David Begelman, who had resigned in the wake of an embezzlement scandal.
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Daniel Melnick married Linda Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers and Dorothy Feiner Rodgers, in February 1955, at the Manhattan home of her parents.
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Daniel Melnick was known for personal elegance and refined tastes in art, dress, and architecture.
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Daniel Melnick once said to the same assistant that, when facing a business dilemma, he would sometimes ask himself what the 17th-century French statesman Cardinal Richelieu, whose genius for intrigue he admired, might do in a similar situation.
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Daniel Melnick died at the age of 77 on October 13,2009, at his home in Los Angeles of lung cancer.
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Daniel Melnick was survived by a son, a daughter, and two grandchildren.
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Daniel Melnick was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.