Dore Schary

Dore Schary (actually: Isadore Schary; born August 31, 1905 in Newark, New Jersey; † July 7, 1980 in New York City ) was an American author, screenwriter and film producer. From 1951 to 1956 he was head of the Hollywood studio film production company Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer ( MGM).

Life and work

Scharys parents, Herman Hugo and Belle ( Drachler ) Schary, were Russian-Jewish immigrants and operated in Newark, a delicatessen. Schary attended the Central High School in Newark, this left the age of fourteen, and practiced part-time jobs, but returned to the school after he had realized that he would not come without professional training. From 1928 onwards he was a member of changing theatrical companies, where he played small stage roles and began writing pieces.

1932 Columbia Pictures dedicated him as a screenwriter, already a year later he left the company but to work as a screenwriter freelance. With his script for the film hotshots Schary won an Oscar in 1939. From 1941, he worked alongside his screenplay work as a producer for the B-movie section of MGM, which he left in 1943 to work for David O. Selznick. 1947 Schary was a producer at RKO.

1948 dedicated MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer Schary as production chief, quarreled with him in the following years but constantly on the philosophy of the company. While Mayer preferred lush and pleasing entertainment films, Schary tended to productions that too much "message" contained by Mayers feeling. After the company - by judicial attacks on the Trust structure of the film company and by the competition of the young medium of television - in the late 1940s fell into crisis, sparked from Schary Mayer in 1951 as MGM's President. However, he held this position for only five years. 1956, the former vice president Benjamin Thau became his successor.

Was founded in 1958 Schary own production company, which Schary Productions, but have achieved only three films to 1963. He also continued to write screenplays and Broadway plays, including Sunrise at Campobello, a stage play about Franklin D. Roosevelt's struggle with his paralysis, which was awarded after the first performance in 1958 with four Tony Awards. 1960 produced a film adaptation Schary (Sunrise at Campobello ). A little later he led for the only time to direct myself in a movie, in the Moss Hart biopic Act One (1963).

Throughout his career as a film Manager Schary, who was close to the Democrats was politically engaged. During the McCarthy era, he was a widely perceived opponents of the blacklisting. 1952 and 1956 he supported the presidential candidacy of Adlai Stevenson. From 1963 to 1969 he was chairman of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. At the same time he was also responsible for culture in the administration of New York Mayor John Lindsay.

Schary was married to the artist Miriam Svet since 1932 and had three children with her. He died in his New York home and is at the Hebrew Cemetery in West Long Branch, New Jersey buried.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Effect

The Anti-Defamation League has a Dore Schary Award in 1982 created a prize will be awarded every year since the young film artists who have made ​​an outstanding contribution to human rights and the fight against prejudice.

Publications by Dore Schary (selection)

  • Case History of a Movie, 1950
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