Lew Grade
Lew Grade, Baron Grade ( actually: Louis Winogradsky, born December 25, 1906 in Tokmak, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine, † 13 December 1998 in London, England ) was a British film producer of Ukrainian origin.
Biography
Louis Winogradsky, was born as the eldest of three sons of the Jewish couple Olga and Isaac Winogradsky in Ukraine, the former Russian Empire. While his brother Bernard in 1909 († 1994) was born in the Ukraine, his youngest brother Leslie was born in England. Thither the family emigrated in 1912, where Isaac took over the management of a movie theater in the East End of London. The family got the British Citizenship.
At 15, he began working in a tailor shop as an employee; nevertheless was a theater and film his true passion. Winogradsky in 1926 took part in a Charleston Competition at the Royal Albert Hall and won the competition. Now he took his pseudonym Lew Grade, and began his path in show business as a professional dancer.
Grade, his brother Leslie (* 1916, † 1979) and her partner Joe Collins (father of actress Joan Collins) founded in 1933 an agency that was to become the greatest of England. Stars such as Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier were sponsored by them. Degree second brother, Bernard, also made his way and was head of the EMI Group.
Lew Grade founded his own film production company ITC Entertainment, which merged in 1962 with AP film. ITC produced in the 1960s and 1970s a number of successful television series such as Department S, Jason King, The man with the suitcase, secret mission for John Drake, Number Six, Moonbase Alpha 1 and UFO. With the television series The Two succeeded degrees, the U.S. superstar Tony Curtis for one of the two main roles in this production to win - the first and to date, only time that a movie star of this magnitude took a role in a British television production. Also helped Grade Jim Henson and his Muppet Show in England to greater awareness
Grade was the driving force behind the private broadcaster ATV which he wanted to know in direct competition with the BBC. ATV, intent on quality high-class entertainment, gave 1977 Grades ITC Entertainment and its executive producer Vincenzo Labella the order to Jesus of Nazareth, the movie that made grade best known as he was able to record successes in the U.S. market. On the other hand, the 1980 produced feature film Raise the Titanic turned out based on a novel by the U.S. writer Clive Cussler degree as the greatest flop.
Private grade was married from 1942 until his death with Kathleen Moody; the two adopted a son, Paul. 1969 degrees was knighted and appointed Life peer as Baron Grade of Elstree in the County of Hertfordshire in 1976. He died at the age of 91 of heart failure.