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Vincent Sherman (born Abraham Orovitz, July 16, 1906 – June 18, 2006) was an American director and actor who worked in Hollywood. His movies include Mr. Skeffington (1944), Nora Prentiss (1947), and The Young Philadelphians (1959).
Vincent Sherman (1906-2006) was a prolific and versatile filmmaker who worked in Hollywood and TV. He directed classics like Affair in Trinidad, Counsellor at Law and All Through the Night, and acted in films like The Crime of Helen Stanley.
- January 1, 1
- Vienna, Georgia, USA
- January 1, 1
- Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
Jun 21, 2006 · Vincent Sherman was born Abraham Orovitz on July 16, 1906, in the small town of Vienna, Ga. He attended Oglethorpe University in Atlanta then went to New York, where he changed his name, began ...
- Overview
- Early work
- “Women’s pictures”
- “Graylisting” and later work
Vincent Sherman (born July 16, 1906, Vienna, Georgia, U.S.—died June 18, 2006, Los Angeles, California) American director who was especially known for so-called “women’s pictures,” films that were geared to female audiences.
Sherman began his film career as an actor and appeared in several productions, most notably William Wyler’s Counsellor at Law (1933). In the late 1930s he started writing screenplays, and his credits included the crime dramas Crime School (1938) and King of the Underworld (1939), both of which starred Humphrey Bogart. In 1939 Sherman made the trans...
Sherman’s first important movie was The Hard Way (1943), a gritty show-business melodrama with fine performances from Ida Lupino, Joan Leslie, and Jack Carson. Old Acquaintance (1943) was a popular drama starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins as feuding writers. Sherman reteamed with Davis on Mr. Skeffington (1944), which was another box-office hit for the duo. The soap opera featured Davis in an Academy Award-nominated performance as a narcissistic woman who enters into a loveless marriage with a financier (Claude Rains). Less popular was Pillow to Post (1945), a screwball comedy starring Lupino. Sherman next ventured into film noir with Nora Prentiss (1947). It starred Kent Smith as an unhappily married physician who fakes his death in order to start over with a nightclub singer (Ann Sheridan). Sheridan was also notable in The Unfaithful (1947), playing a woman who kills an intruder, allegedly in self-defense; it was loosely based on W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Letter.
Sherman tried his hand at swordplay with Adventures of Don Juan (1949), which proved to be a fine vehicle for Errol Flynn. The Hasty Heart (1949), an adaptation of John Patrick’s play, was set in a military hospital during World War II; it starred Richard Todd, Patricia Neal, and Ronald Reagan. Backfire (1950) was a second-tier noir, with Virginia Mayo and Gordon MacRae.
After Sherman fell under suspicion of holding communist sympathies, he was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee and subsequently “graylisted” by studios. He did not work again in Hollywood for five years, though in 1956 he codirected (uncredited) the Italian film Difendo il mio amore (Defend My Love). His credited return to the big screen was The Garment Jungle (1957), an exposé of efforts to keep a dressmaking company from unionizing; much of the film was helmed by Robert Aldrich, but he was fired and replaced by Sherman. After the British production The Naked Earth (1959), Sherman made The Young Philadelphians (1959), a soap opera starring Paul Newman as an ambitious lawyer.
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Ice Palace (1960), from the Edna Ferber novel, was an ambitious period adventure set in Alaska, with Richard Burton and Robert Ryan. After the courtroom drama A Fever in the Blood (1961), Sherman directed The Second Time Around (1961), a pleasant western with Debbie Reynolds as a sheriff of a small Arizona town. The latter was Sherman’s last Hollywood film. His final feature, Cervantes (1967; also called Young Rebel), was a European film about the Spanish writer.
- Michael Barson
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Vincent Sherman, who directed Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and Errol Flynn during their 1940s heyday at Warner Bros. and was one of the last surviving studio-era contract directors, has died.
Vincent Sherman. Director: Affair in Trinidad. Vincent Sherman was born on 16 July 1906 in Vienna, Georgia, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Affair in Trinidad (1952), Counsellor at Law (1933) and All Through the Night (1942).
Jun 20, 2006 · Vincent Sherman, who directed Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth and Joan Crawford in the 1940s and 1950s, passed away at 100 in 2006. He also faced the communist "red scare" and became a successful TV director.
