1. Samuel Goldwyn, known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer and pioneer in the American film industry, who produced Hollywood's first major motion picture.
17 Facts About Samuel Goldwyn
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Samuel Goldwyn was best known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood.
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Samuel Goldwyn was awarded the 1973 Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award, the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
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Samuel Goldwyn was born as Szmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw to Hasidic Jewish parents, Aaron Dawid Gelbfisz, a peddler, and his wife, Hanna Frymet.
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Samuel Goldwyn left Warsaw penniless after his father's death and made his way to Hamburg.
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Samuel Goldwyn found work in upstate Gloversville, New York in the bustling glove business.
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Samuel Goldwyn was no longer an active member of management, although he still owned stock and was a member of the board of directors.
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In 1916, Samuel Goldwyn partnered with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using a combination of both names to call their film-making enterprise Samuel Goldwyn Pictures.
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Samuel Goldwyn Pictures proved successful, but it is their "Leo the Lion" trademark for which the company is remembered today.
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For 35 years, Samuel Goldwyn built a reputation in filmmaking and developed an eye for finding the talent for making films.
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Samuel Goldwyn made numerous films during that time and reigned as Hollywood's most successful independent producer.
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William Wyler was responsible for most of Samuel Goldwyn's highly lauded films, with Best Picture Oscar nominations for Dodsworth, Dead End, Wuthering Heights, The Little Foxes and The Best Years of Our Lives.
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In 1910, Goldwyn married Blanche Lasky, a sister of Jesse L Lasky.
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Samuel Goldwyn died of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles in 1974 at 91 or 94 if born in 1879.
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Samuel Goldwyn's relatives include Fred Lebensold, an award-winning architect.
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Samuel Goldwyn's will created a multimillion-dollar charitable foundation in his name.
17.
The statement attributed to Samuel Goldwyn that "a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on" is a well-documented misreporting of an actual quote praising the trustworthiness of a colleague: "His verbal contract is worth more than the paper it's written on".