Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Dies at 88
Variety
By Carmel Dagan
January 9, 2015
Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of a fiercely
independent-minded Hollywood mogul and the producer of many independent films
in his own right including “Mystic Pizza” and studio hits including “Master and
Commander,” died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was
88. His son John Goldwyn told the New York Times he died of congestive heart
failure.
Goldwyn Jr. received his final credit as a producer,
together with son John and others, on Fox’s long-gestating remake of the
Goldwyn Sr.-produced classic “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” starring and
directed by Ben Stiller and released in December 2013.
The courtly and soft-spoken scion was known for
shepherding independent and foreign films and got his start in documentary
filmmaking, in contrast to his brash father, who made his way from a youth of
poverty in Poland to a partner in MGM.
“I love it. If you don’t love this business, don’t go
near it. Don’t go near it to get rich,” he told Britain’s the Independent in
2004. “And just remember, if you’re right 51 per cent of the time in this
business, you’re a genius.”
As producer of the Peter Weir-directed “Master and
Commander: The Far Side of the World” together with Weir and Duncan Henderson,
Goldwyn Jr. shared that film’s Oscar nomination for best picture in 2004. (The
film received a total of 10 nominations and won two Oscars.)
His Samuel Goldwyn Company was one of the most
significant distributors of independent film during the period in which they
flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. Among the films the company acquired and
distributed were David Lynch’s Palme d’Or winner “Wild at Heart,” Jim Jarmusch’s
“Stranger Than Paradise,” Bill Forsyth’s “Gregory’s Girl,” Alex Cox’s “Sid and
Nancy,” Stephen Frears’ “Prick Up Your Ears,” Robert Townsend’s “Hollywood
Shuffle,” Charles Burnett’s “To Sleep With Anger,” John Sayles’ “City of Hope,”
Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
After a failed merger and lawsuit resulting from MGM’s
acquisition of the distributor, Goldwyn Jr. relaunched his company as Samuel
Goldwyn Films in the early 2000s. Though it was not nearly as active as the
earlier incarnation, the new entity released indies such as “The Squid and the
Whale,” “2 Days in Paris” and “Robot & Frank.”
In a 2004 New York Times profile, the tall, silver-haired
Goldwyn was described as resembling not so much his father “as a combination of
Kirk Douglas and Paul Newman.”
But Goldwyn Jr. gloried in his father’s achievements,
eventually returning to live as an adult in the vast Beverly Hills estate built
by his father and tending to the library of films. The films Samuel Goldwyn Sr.
produced, including “The Best Years of Our Lives” and “Guys and Dolls,” are
handled by the Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Family Trust and currently licensed to Warner
Bros. for U.S. distribution.
Sam Goldwyn Sr. was one of the pioneers of Hollywood, and
his production company, Goldwyn Pictures Corp., became part of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924, but Goldwyn Sr. had no involvement with MGM and
was independent of the studio system after that.
Goldwyn Jr., however, did not “trade on his father’s name,”
Tom Rothman, who began his career at the Samuel Goldwyn Company, told the New
York Times.
Goldwyn Jr. grew up in Los Angeles as a self-confessed
“Hollywood brat” — his mother was actress Frances Howard, he attended his first
Oscar ceremony at age 11 and worked in editing rooms during summer vacation. He
then spent a long period away from Los Angeles, attending prep school in
Colorado and the U. of Virginia. After serving in the Army, he then took a job
in England working for J. Arthur Rank, where he earned his first film credit as
associate producer on the British crime thriller “Good-Time Girl,” Diana Dors’
first film, in 1948. Goldwyn Jr. rejoined the military in 1950, where he
produced and directed documentaries for the staff of General Dwight D.
Eisenhower. Back in the U.S., he worked under Edward R. Murrow at CBS News and
co-produced docu series “Adventure.”
When the young Goldwyn returned to Hollywood in the
mid-1950s, Goldwyn Sr.’s career was in decline. In 1955 Goldwyn Jr. launched
his production company Formosa Prods. (his father’s Samuel Goldwyn Studio was
located at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa Avenue) and
produced his first film, uncredited, the same year: the Robert Mitchum Western
“Man With the Gun.”
Via Formosa Prods. he also produced “The Sharkfighters”
(1956), “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1960) and, in the early 1970s,
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” and “Come Back, Charleston Blue.” Goldwyn Jr. directed
one film, “The Young Lovers,” starring Peter Fonda and Sharon Hugueny, in 1964.
In addition to his film work, Goldwyn Jr. produced the
Academy Awards ceremony twice, in the late 1980s, winning an Emmy in 1988 for
his effort.
His family’s charitable contributions are evident
throughout the city: Samuel Goldwyn Foundation sponsors the yearly Samuel
Goldwyn Writing Awards, created the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Children’s Center
day care facility, built the Academy of Motion Pictures theater and constructed
the Hollywood Public Library in memory of Frances Howard Goldwyn.
He was married twice, to writer Peggy Elliott, with whom
he had two children, and to actress Jennifer Howard, with whom he had four. He
is survived by three sons, producer John; actor Tony and Peter, senior VP of
Samuel Goldwyn Films; and three daughters Catherine, Frances and Elizabeth; and
nine grandchildren.
GOLDWYN, Jr., Samuel
Born: 9/7/1926, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Died: 1/9/2015, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.’s westerns – producer:
Man with the Gun – 1955
The Proud Rebel – 1958
Outback - 1989
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