Henry Koster
Henry Koster, actually Hermann Kosterlitz, ( born May 1, 1905 in Berlin, German Reich, † September 21, 1988 in Camarillo, California, USA ) was a German - American film director and screenwriter.
Life
Koster was born in 1905 in an upper middle class assimilated Jewish family in Berlin. His father practiced medicine. His mother's father was Julius Salomon, a famous tenor, who died, however, early tuberculosis. Koster's older brother Hans Walter Kosterlitz later became a famous pharmacologist at the University of Aberdeen.
Koster 1910 came the first time with the film in contact when his uncle opened a cinema. He accompanied his mother there every day. At age 17, he had already made as a writer of short stories a name.
In the 1930s, he became an assistant to director Kurt Bernhardt. As this 1931 one day in the middle of the filming was ill, he took over as director. He turned three films for the AAFA AG until he had to leave with an SS officer after Hitler's seizure of power in the middle of work Germany after a brawl.
Koster went to Vienna as a film director and turned among other comedies of the Hungarian- Franziska Gaal. In 1936 he met Joe Pasternak from Universal Studios know, moved to the U.S. and got a contract for three films as a director. Koster has virtually overnight become the savior of the threatened bankruptcy Studios with the strip Three Smart Girls with the 14 -year-old Deanna Durbin. Durbin had only shortly before been dropped in favor of Judy Garland by Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer ( MGM). Together with Pasternak, they produced until 1941 even more movies with Durbin, so 100 men and a girl from 1937, in which Leopold Stokowski had a supporting role, and Mad About Music from the following year.
By 1941, Koster worked for Universal, then for MGM. He was largely responsible for the rise of Kathryn Grayson. Since 1948, he stood at 20th Century Fox contract. For the sinful city he was nominated for an Oscar. In 1952, he turned with The Robe the first Cinemascope movie, then he specialized in costume dramas. His last film was Dominique - The Singing Nun ( The Singing Nun ) 1966 He died on 21 September 1988 in Camarillo, California..
Koster was married twice, from 1934 to 1941 with Katharine Kiarly (a son, Bob Koster ) and from 30 October 1942, Peggy Moran, with whom he had two children.