The Wizard of Oz
1939
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Mervyn LeRoy (/ l ə ˈ r ɔɪ /; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director, producer and actor. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies.
- 1928–1968
- 2, including Warner
- October 15, 1900, San Francisco, California, U.S.
- September 13, 1987 (aged 86), Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Learn about the life and career of Mervyn LeRoy, a versatile and influential director who worked in various genres and studios. From his early days in vaudeville and Warner Bros. to his classic films at MGM and his later projects, see his filmography, awards and trivia.
- January 1, 1
- San Francisco, California, USA
- January 1, 1
- Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Overview
- Early work
- At Warner Brothers in the 1930s: Little Caesar, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, and Gold Diggers of 1933
Mervyn LeRoy (born October 15, 1900, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died September 13, 1987, Beverly Hills, California) American motion-picture director whose wide variety of films included dramas, romances, epics, comedies, and musicals. He also produced films, including the classic The Wizard of Oz (1939).
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
After the LeRoy family home was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, LeRoy earned his first money by selling newspapers; that became his entreé to show business when one of his customers helped him get a part onstage as a newsboy. He performed in vaudeville as “the Singing Newsboy.” His cousin Jesse Lasky helped him get a job folding costumes at Famous Players–Lasky in 1919, and from there he ascended from lab technician to assistant cameraman. LeRoy managed a parallel career as an actor, often playing juveniles in films from 1922 to 1924.
After he outgrew those parts, LeRoy moved behind the scenes, writing gags (and sometimes more) for such Colleen Moore pictures as Sally (1925), Ella Cinders (1926), and Twinkletoes (1926). In 1927 Warner Brothers signed him to direct, and he commenced this most-important phase of his career with such low-budget efforts as Harold Teen (1928) and Oh Kay! (1928). Hot Stuff (1929), a comedy with Alice White, was his first sound picture, and White also starred in Broadway Babies (1929) and Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), an inside-Hollywood yarn with portions shot in Technicolor.
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Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia
Also in 1930 came Numbered Men, a prison drama, and Top Speed, a Joe E. Brown musical comedy. Then came Little Caesar (1931), the film that made LeRoy’s reputation, with Edward G. Robinson as a Capone-like crime czar. It stands as one of the seminal gangster pictures, along with William Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931) and Howard Hawks’s Scarface (1932).
Gentleman’s Fate, Too Young to Marry, and Broadminded, the latter another comedy with Brown, all followed in 1931, though none had the impact of Little Caesar. However, Five Star Final (1931) again had the benefit of Robinson, this time playing a hard-boiled newspaper editor whose ethics are twisted out of shape in his pursuit of higher circulation. Local Boy Makes Good, yet another vehicle for Brown, and Tonight or Never completed LeRoy’s slate for 1931—seven releases, an impressive figure even by the standards of the time. High Pressure (1932) offered William Powell in top comic form as a promoter trying to find investors for an artificial rubber process, and Two Seconds (1932) had Robinson playing a convicted murderer who has just moments to relive his miserable existence before the electric chair ends it all.
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Big City Blues (1932), a modest crime yarn, starred Eric Linden and Joan Blondell, and the melodrama Three on a Match (1932) starred Blondell, Bette Davis, and Ann Dvorak as childhood friends who reunite as adults just in time for one of them to meet a tragic fate. One of LeRoy’s most notable films was I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), a blistering adaptation of Robert E. Burns’s account of his horrible experiences in a Georgia prison camp. The film and Paul Muni’s harrowing portrayal of the unjustly imprisoned convict were nominated for Academy Awards. Hard to Handle (1933) did not have any such social consciousness but remains a fine example of Warner Brothers’s pre-Production Code comedies, with James Cagney as a press agent who will promote anything and everything.
Elmer, the Great (1933) had Brown as a very un-Ruthian home-run slugger, but it was the musical Gold Diggers of 1933 that became a classic. A follow-up to 42nd Street (1933), it had essentially the same cast and dance director Busby Berkeley, who staged such memorable production numbers as “We’re in the Money,” “Remember My Forgotten Man,” and “Pettin’ in the Park.” Tugboat Annie (1933), starring Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, was another smash. LeRoy’s fifth release of 1933 was The World Changes, a soap opera starring Muni as a meatpacking tycoon and Mary Astor as his snobbish wife.
- Michael Barson
Sep 14, 1987 · Mervyn LeRoy, the versatile movie director of such explosive dramas as ''Little Caesar'' and ''I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang'' and such lush romances as ''Waterloo Bridge'' and ''Random ...
Mini Bio. The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 was a tragedy for Mervyn LeRoy. While he and his father managed to survive, they lost everything they had. To make money, LeRoy sold newspapers and entered talent contests as a singer.
- October 15, 1900
- September 13, 1987
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Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer, and sometime actor. He worked in costumes, processing labs, and as a camera assistant before becoming a director of silent films, such as The Ten Commandments and Five Star Final. He also directed films for MGM, such as Quo Vadis, Random Harvest, and Blossoms in the Dust. He was nominated for an Oscar for his direction of Quo Vadis and won an honorary Oscar for his work on tolerance.
Find bio, credits and filmography information for Mervyn LeRoy on AllMovie - In his time, which lasted from the '20s until the '60s, Mervyn LeRoy was one of the movie…
