110 Facts About Harold Hecht

Harold Adolphe Hecht was an American film producer, dance director and talent agent.

Harold Hecht was, though less noted for, a literary agent, a theatrical producer, a theatre director and a Broadway actor.

Harold Hecht was a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Screen Producers Guild.

At the 28th Academy Awards ceremony in 1956, Harold Hecht received a Best Picture Oscar for the 1955 Harold Hecht-Lancaster Productions film Marty.

Harold Hecht was again nominated three years later at the 31st Academy Awards ceremony for the 1958 Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions film Separate Tables.

The film did not win but Harold Hecht did accept the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in place of Wendy Hiller who could not be present.

Four of the films Harold Hecht was associated with have been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States National Film Preservation Board and have been selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry; Duck Soup in 1990, Sweet Smell of Success in 1993, Marty in 1994 and She Done Him Wrong in 1996.

Harold Adolphe Hecht was born on June 1,1907, in Yorkville, New York City, to Joseph Hecht and Rose Hecht.

Harold Hecht's father was born on November 17,1882, in Austria.

Harold Hecht's mother was born on January 18,1882, in Austria.

Harold Hecht attended PS 169, graduating in spring 1923 at the age of sixteen.

Harold Hecht is reported to have frequented the Union Settlement house on East 104th Street in East Harlem.

Just as Harold Hecht was looking for his vocation, the very field he wanted to be in was interviewing students for a new school.

Harold Hecht was among the first students accepted to attend the new school in late 1923.

Harold Hecht excelled at The Lab and was accepted into its Auxiliary Acting Group, granting him the privilege of appearing in the school's produced plays, while remaining under Boleslavsky's teachings beyond the two years required to graduate.

Many of The Lab's students worked on additional aspects of the plays that the school produced and Harold Hecht was most drawn by choreography.

Harold Hecht worked under Boleslavsky, both in The Lab's productions and on other Broadway productions, as stage assistant.

In 1929 Boleslavsky left for Hollywood and Harold Hecht continued to attend The Lab headed by Maria Ouspenskaya and Maria Germanova.

Harold Hecht worked on Les noces at the Metropolitan Opera.

In October 1931 Richard Boleslavsky invited Harold Hecht to join him in Hollywood to choreograph the dance numbers on an upcoming project he was set to direct at RKO Radio Pictures.

Harold Hecht's leading man was scheduled to be John Warburton, loaned out from Fox Films, with Hugh Herbert as a singing supporting character.

Harold Hecht hired Frances Grant, fresh from assisting Larry Ceballos at Fanchon and Marco, to help him with the new routines on Chi Chi and Her Papas.

Prinz had clashed with the original choreographer, Billy Grant and Harold Hecht came in to replace him.

In mid-March 1932 Harold Hecht signed a one-year agreement and became a contract choreographer and dance director for Paramount Pictures.

One of the numbers Harold Hecht directed was I'm Against It, a scene where Groucho Marx, playing Quincy Adams Wagstaff, is first installed as the new headmaster of Huxley College.

Harold Hecht trained Groucho alongside twenty elder actors, aged 61 to 77 years old, with naturally grown beards and dressed in academic gowns.

Whether Hale worked alone or if Harold Hecht had any input in the film is unknown.

In June and July 1932, Harold Hecht was loaned out from Paramount to M-G-M for the Marion Davies film Blondie of the Follies.

Immediately after Lucky Day, Harold Hecht started working on the play Hullabaloo, which took several months of preparation.

Harold Hecht co-directed it with Paul Gerard Smith and choreographed the Gilmor Brown production.

In late November 1932 Harold Hecht became involved in a series of Mae West projects, which all eventually culminated into a single picture.

Harold Hecht was billed fourth, after George Raft, Constance Cummings and Wynne Gibson.

Ultimately, all of Harold Hecht's material was merged into a single film and used on She Done Him Wrong.

Harold Hecht teamed up with Jack Oakie and Boris Petroff to create a new dance, the Fraternity Stomp, which Oakie and Lorna Andre performed in the film.

Harold Hecht later stated that he worked with director Frank Tuttle during his days at Paramount.

Harold Hecht put together a number that included a line of 36 girls for the Mark Sandrich film starring Charlie Ruggles and Phil Harris.

However, after two weeks of working on Maiden Cruise, Paramount recalled him claiming the RKO production had been delayed and that Harold Hecht's work on Paramount's own International House was a priority.

Once Harold Hecht was free from his Paramount contract in April 1933, RKO hired him again, this time to direct the dance numbers on Bed of Roses, a film directed by Gregory La Cava starring Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Pert Kelton and John Halliday.

Harold Hecht directed the play and choreographed the dances to music originally composed by John Alden Carpenter.

Harold Hecht refashioned the work into an eight-scene ballet with the help of Blanding Sloane, who worked on the sets, lights and made the masks, and Kay Otteson who designed the costumes.

In October 1933, Harold Hecht was offered opportunities to direct dance numbers at Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Fox Films and Columbia Pictures within a short period of time.

Harold Hecht is said to have worked on the Edmond Goulding film Hollywood Party at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in March 1934, though no official credit has surfaced to confirm this.

Harold Hecht later claimed that his initial departure from Hollywood was caused by a lack of work in the fast-paced, constantly evolving musical pictures business.

In November 1935, exactly four years after leaving, Harold Hecht returned to New York City and took employment at the Summer Hotel.

Harold Hecht was then hired by the Theatre Guild and positioned as assistant director and assistant stage manager for the Leonard Lawrence Atlas play But for the Grace of God in 1936.

Harold Hecht was not the original stage manager of the play and only came in through Schneider's insistence.

Harold Hecht studied five hours a week, taking classes like labor studies, political economy, current events and the rise of Marxism and Leninism.

The actress was so insulted that she rushed to Harold Hecht, asking for the man to be fired.

In either July or August 1939 Harold Hecht returned to Hollywood and found it difficult to secure employment.

Harold Hecht was then living with writer Roland Kibbee and the two became good friends.

In late 1939, after months of unemployment, Harold Hecht was hired by Nat Goldstone as a talent agent for the Goldstone Agency.

The Goldstone Agency initially dealt with actors and Harold Hecht established for them a literary department, first becoming head of the new division and then being promoted to a partner in the company.

Harold Hecht worked two years for the Goldstone Agency, eventually handling up to thirty-six writers.

Harold Hecht hired one of these writers, George Willner, to be his assistant.

Harold Hecht enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps on August 29,1942, in support of World War II.

Harold Hecht was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant and placed in Special Services, the entertainment department.

Harold Hecht produced live shows for servicemen with in person appearances by some of the biggest stars of the day: including songwriter Johnny Mercer, vocalist Francis Langford, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and personal friend, actor John Garfield.

Stories are told about the time Harold Hecht was introduced to Lancaster on the last night of the play.

Rantz and Harold Hecht managed actresses Edith Barrett, Frances Rafferty and Karen Morley and actors Roman Bohnen and Phil Brown in 1945 and 1946.

However, Harold Hecht Productions had an agency division and he retained many of the actors and writers already under contract with the Hecht-Rantz Agency.

Harold Hecht signed new talents such as actors Art Smith and Francis McDonald and writers Walter Bernstein, Roland Kibbee and Meta Rosenberg.

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, a co-production through Norma Productions and Harold Hecht Productions, was released in late 1948 to moderate success.

Years later Harold Hecht attempted to develop a sequel, Jolly Roger: Son of the Crimson Pirate, but this film was never made.

In December 1952 Harold Hecht joined the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Harold Hecht's name was given to the House Un-American Activities Committee by Martin Berkeley on September 19,1951.

At the time that Harold Hecht's name was brought up, he was in Italy working on Norma Productions' The Crimson Pirate for Warner Brothers and a subpoena for his testimony was only procured two years later.

On March 23,1953, Harold Hecht appeared in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, represented by his lawyer Edward Bennett Williams.

Harold Hecht cooperated with the Committee on every aspect, feeling no shame about his past and answering all their questions regarding his affiliation with the Communist Party.

Harold Hecht admitted to once being a member of the Communist Party but informed the Committee that he was no longer of that state of mind.

Harold Hecht hired both of them to develop the story into a movie and approached Ernest Borgnine, who had never been given a starring role in a film, to play the lead.

On June 12,1956, Harold Hecht joined the Screen Producers Guild as their 150th member.

One of Harold Hecht's most coveted film rights purchases came when he procured The Devil's Disciple from Nobel Prize-winner George Bernard Shaw's estate.

Harold Hecht hired pop singer Johnny Nash to play the lead with Philip Leacock directing.

Harold Hecht turned down Paramount's offer and the position was eventually filled by Jack Karp.

Pakula commissioned Arnold to adapt Flight from Ashiya into a screenplay while Harold Hecht approached such stars as Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan and Tuesday Weld for the leads.

Harold Hecht formed a new film production company with Canadian actor Glenn Ford.

Harold Hecht was hoping that the new combo would be as successful and hired more top Hollywood personnel to work on The Young Savages; John Gay to write the screenplay and Robert Rossen to direct.

Many of the projects that Harold Hecht worked on between 1959 and 1964 shifted back and forth between independent solo productions and Harold Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions ventures.

The film was a co-production between Tony Curtis' Curtleigh Productions and Hecht's original Harold Hecht Productions, making a comeback after its first use for 1948's Kiss the Blood Off My Hands.

Harold Hecht gave a cameo role to his soon-to-be second wife, Martine Millner, as a gypsy dancer.

Harold Hecht went on location in Salta, Argentina with Eastmancolor equipped Panavision cameras, and two-time Oscar nominated cinematographer, Joseph MacDonald.

Taras Bulba was released in late 1962 and featured a score by Franz Waxman, who had worked with Harold Hecht on Run Silent, Run Deep.

In late 1962 Harold Hecht resumed work on Flight from Ashiya.

Waldo Salt continued his association with Harold Hecht and co-wrote the screenplay with author Elliot Arnold.

Harold Hecht teamed up with Curtis' new production company, Reynard Productions, to produce the romantic comedy, Wild and Wonderful.

Harold Hecht befriends a young musician and spends the night with him at locals taverns before sleeping it off at his apartment.

The film was entirely set in Paris but because of Universal's limited budget, it became one of the few movies that Harold Hecht was not granted permission to film on actual location.

In late 1962 Harold Hecht signed a two-picture deal with Columbia Pictures.

That no time limit clause in his contract caused him to work for two years until Harold Hecht said, okay, that's it.

Harold Hecht hoped to have Marvin and Fonda reprise their roles and was in negotiation with Bette Davis for a part.

Harold Hecht worked on various scripts and pre-production stages over the next twenty years of his life.

The Way West was intended as a major box-office attraction and Harold Hecht hired Hollywood's top names to work on the film.

Later that summer Harold Hecht screen-tested May 1967 Playboy Playmate of the Month model, Anne Randall, for the female lead.

Reiner, Van Dyke and screenwriter Aaron Ruben re-wrote the screenplay considerably over the next year and by the summer of 1968, Harold Hecht was out of the picture.

The film was eventually released in late 1969, strictly as a Reiner production, and it is currently unknown if any of Harold Hecht's contributions remained in the final version of the film.

One of the projects that has been wrongly accredited to Harold Hecht is Ulzana's Raid.

Certain sources claim that Harold Hecht was an uncredited producer.

Harold Hecht's involvement was never claimed by anyone who worked on the film and the only credited production companies and producers for Ulzana's Raid are Robert Aldrich and his production company, The Associates and Aldrich Company, and Carter DeHaven and his production company, De Haven Productions.

Harold Hecht had previously worked as an executive assistant in MGM's story department.

Steven Harold Hecht, born 1948 is an attorney living in the Los Angeles area.

Alma Harold Hecht, born September 1955 at the Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica is a landscape designer living in Berkeley, California.

Harold and Gloria separated on July 18,1959, with Harold moving permanently into Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions' luxurious apartment on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, which he had been maintaining during the couples previous arguments.

The court's decision concluded that Harold Hecht would pay alimony to Gloria for 121 months regardless of occupation or remarriages.

In January 1968, Harold Hecht filed for appeal over the alimony ruling but was denied.

Adam Arthur Harold Hecht was born on August 6,1965, at the UCLA Medical Center and worked as a tennis coach before mysteriously vanishing on July 7,1989, from Beverly Hills, California at age 23.

Harold Hecht has never been found, but the police do not suspect foul play and classify the case as a missing person.

The story of Adam Harold Hecht's disappearance was depicted on the American television series Unsolved Mysteries in 1990.

Harold Hecht died in his home in Beverly Hills, of pancreatic cancer on May 26,1985.

Harold Hecht was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Harold Hecht has founded and co-founded a number of companies over the years.