53 Facts About Mervyn LeRoy

Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director and producer.

Mervyn LeRoy's most acclaimed films of his tenure at Warners include Little Caesar, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Gold Diggers of 1933 and They Won't Forget.

Mervyn LeRoy left Warners and moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1939 to serve as both director and producer.

Mervyn LeRoy was born on October 15,1900, in San Francisco, California, the only child of Edna and Harry Mervyn LeRoy, a well-to-do department store owner.

Mervyn LeRoy's mother was a frequent attendee at San Francisco's premier vaudeville venues, the Orpheum and the Alcazar, often socializing with the theater's personnel.

Mervyn LeRoy arranged for the six-year-old LeRoy to serve as a Native-American papoose in the 1906 stage production of The Squaw Man.

Mervyn LeRoy's parents separated suddenly in 1905 for reasons that were not divulged to their son.

Mervyn LeRoy's mother moved to Oakland, California with Percy Teeple, a travel agent and former journalist, who would later become LeRoy's stepfather after the death of Harry Leroy in 1916.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire devastated the city when Mervyn LeRoy was five-and-a-half years old.

Mervyn LeRoy was sleeping in his bed on the second floor when the quake struck in the early morning causing the house to collapse.

At the age of twelve, with few prospects to acquire a formal education and his father financially strained, Mervyn LeRoy became a newsboy and earned his first money.

Mervyn LeRoy hawked newspapers at iconic locations, including Chinatown, the Barbary Coast red-light district and Fisherman's Wharf, where he became educated as to the realities of life in the city:.

Mervyn LeRoy relished the lifestyle of a vaudevillian, occasionally appearing in shows that featured iconic performers of the era, among them Sarah Bernhardt, Harry Houdini and Jack Benny.

Mervyn LeRoy joined George Choos's mostly female troupe in musical comedies, and Gus Edwards act billed "The Nine Country Kids" in 1922.

Mervyn LeRoy accepted a bit role in a scene with former The Perils of Pauline star Pearl White filmed at Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Lasky furnished Mervyn LeRoy with note to the employment department at their Hollywood studios.

Mervyn LeRoy describes it as "a horrible mess" which led to his dismissal in 1921 as cameraman.

Mervyn LeRoy worked intermittently in small supporting roles in film during the early 1920s.

The youthful and diminutive Mervyn LeRoy was consistently cast in juvenile roles.

Mervyn LeRoy eagerly anticipated his first sound picture assignment, Naughty Baby :.

Mervyn LeRoy's early directing efforts at First National were largely limited to comedies.

Mervyn LeRoy embarked on a period of enormous productivity and inventiveness at Warner Studios, creating "some the most polished and ambitious" films of the Thirties.

Mervyn LeRoy first departed from his comedy-romance themed films with his drama Numbered Men, a character study of convicts shot on location at San Quentin prison.

Mervyn LeRoy further demonstrated his talent for delivering fast-paced and competently executed social commentary and entertainment with Five Star Final, an expose of tabloid journalism, and Two Seconds, a "vicious and disenchanted" cautionary tale of a death row inmate, each starring Robinson.

Warner Brothers' most explosive social critique of the 1930s appeared with Mervyn LeRoy's I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, dramatizing the harsh penal codes in Georgia and starring Paul Muni as the hunted fugitive James Allen.

The versatile Mervyn LeRoy portrayed both hard-boiled and clownish characters at Warner Brothers.

Mervyn LeRoy effectively employed cinematic techniques of montage, structural parallels in settings, chiaroscuro lighting and musical leitmotifs to develop atmosphere and convey O'Brien's struggle, ending in his vindication.

Mervyn LeRoy returned to light comedy and romance in 1935 with a film adaptation of the 1929 Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II stage production of the same name starring Irene Dunne.

Mervyn LeRoy served as producer-director on Three Men on a Horse, a "madcap" comedy starring Frank McHugh and a screenplay co-written by Groucho Marx.

Mervyn LeRoy arrived at M-G-M fully expecting to finish his career as the studio's chief production executive.

In 1938, Mervyn LeRoy proposed a film version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Mervyn LeRoy resumed directorial duties with an adaptation of Robert E Sherwood's romantic play Waterloo Bridge.

Mervyn LeRoy directed Robert Taylor, Norma Shearer and Conrad Veidt in the 1940 Escape, the first of a number of anti-Nazi features suppressed by Hitler and which ultimately led to the banning of all M-G-M pictures in Germany.

Mervyn LeRoy completed four features with English actress Greer Garson, an enormously profitable property cultivated by M-G-M to appeal to their British markets during WWII.

Mervyn LeRoy turned out a great American story for me, and it had not the slightest hint of anything subversive in it.

Homecoming : Like director William Wyler's 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives, Mervyn LeRoy's Homecoming dramatizes an ex-servicemen's readjustment to civilian life.

Mervyn LeRoy was perplexed that the compelling screenplay by Richard Brooks and excellent performances delivered by Gable and Alexis Smith did not register at the box-office.

Mervyn LeRoy assumed the dual role of director-producer in the late Fifties and Sixties- the declining period of the Hollywood Golden Age, primarily serving at Warner Studios, but 20th Century Fox, Columbia and Universal.

Gypsy, Warner Brothers: Mervyn LeRoy returned to musicals with a portrayal of the young Gypsy Rose Lee in her early career as a burlesque stripper, played by Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russell as her domineering stage mother.

Moment to Moment, Universal: Mervyn LeRoy's last credited directorial effort, Moment to Moment starring Jean Seberg and Honor Blackman.

Mervyn LeRoy served for over five months as an uncredited advisor on the 1968 The Green Berets, co-directed by Ray Kellogg and John Wayne and based on Robin Moore's 1965 collection of short stories.

Mervyn LeRoy describes his enlistment in the project and the suggests the extent of his contribution:.

Pleased with the results, LeRoy championed Gable to producers Darryl Zanuck and Jack L Warner for the part: they emphatically rejected the prospect, objecting to his relatively large ears.

Mervyn LeRoy declined the opportunity to sign Gable in a personal contract, which he would later regret.

Mervyn LeRoy was selected by LeRoy to play a bit part in his 1933 Elmer, the Great.

Mervyn LeRoy did a beautiful job, and her career was launched.

Mervyn LeRoy changed her name to Lana Turner and personally groomed Turner for stardom.

Audrey Hepburn: During casting for M-G-M's 1950 biblical epic Quo Vadis Mervyn LeRoy sought an unknown actress for the role of Lygia, the young Christian loved by centurion Marcus Vinicius, played by.

Robert Mitchum: Mervyn LeRoy singled out 27-year-old Mitchum among the extras during the shooting of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, casting him to play one of the crew of the "Ruptured Duck", a B-25 bomber.

Mervyn LeRoy married three times and had many relationships with Hollywood actresses.

Mervyn LeRoy was first married to Edna Murphy in 1927, which ended in divorce in 1932.

Mervyn LeRoy sold his Bel Air, Los Angeles, home to Johnny Carson.

Mervyn LeRoy was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.