Irving Thalberg

Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899–September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability for selecting the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff, and making very profitable films out of them.

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May 30 - 1899 - September 14 - 1936

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Thalberg was born in New York City to German Jewish immigrant parents. He had a bad heart and was plagued with other ailments all of his life. Upon completing high school, he was employed by Universal Pictures' New York office, where he worked as personal secretary to legendary studio founder Carl Laemmle, the boss of Universal Studios. Irving Thalberg was bright and persistent, and by age 21 was executive in charge of production at Universal City, the studio's California production site. He quickly established his tenacity as he battled with Erich von Stroheim over the length of Foolish Wives (1922), and controlled every aspect of the production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). In 1924, he left Universal for Louis B. Mayer Productions, which shortly thereafter linked up with Metro Pictures Corporation to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Thalberg is also famous for creating the "unit production management scheme", by which Hollywood productions are split more difinitively into "units", thus spreading out the crative control of a film among proucers, directors, etc.

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German - Jewish - Carl Laemmle - Universal Studios - California - Erich von Stroheim - Foolish Wives - The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Universal - Louis B. Mayer - Metro Pictures Corporation - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Unit production management scheme

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The Big Parade (1925), directed by King Vidor, was Thalberg's first major triumph at MGM. Until 1932, when he suffered a major heart attack, he supervised every important studio production, and combined careful preproduction groundwork with prerelease sneak previews which measured audience response.

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The Big Parade - King Vidor - 1932

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In 1927 he married the actress Norma Shearer, whose career flourished as the wife of the most powerful and respected producer in Hollywood. They had two children, Irving Jr. and Katharine.

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Upon Thalberg's illness, Louis B. Mayer, who had come to resent Thalberg's power and success, replaced him with David O. Selznick and Walter Wanger. When he returned to work in 1933, it was as one of the studio's unit producers.

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Louis B. Mayer - David O. Selznick

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Nonetheless, he helped develop some of MGM's most prestigious ventures, including Grand Hotel (1932), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), China Seas (1935), A Night at the Opera (1935), with the Marx Brothers, San Francisco (1936), and Romeo and Juliet (1936).

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Grand Hotel - Mutiny on the Bounty - China Seas - A Night at the Opera - Marx Brothers - San Francisco - Romeo and Juliet

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Thalberg died of pneumonia in Los Angeles at age 37, during the preproduction of A Day at the Races (1937), with the Marx Brothers, and Marie Antoniette (1938), with his wife. The new multi-million dollar Administration Building built on the old MGM Studios in Culver City (Now Sony Pictures Studios) was named after him two years later.

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A Day at the Races - Marx Brothers - Marie Antoniette

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His final film, The Good Earth (1937), is the one and only time his name ever appeared on the screen. It goes: "To the Memory of Irving Grant Thalberg his last greatest achivement we dedicate this picture". While alive, he refused to let his name to appear in any of his films, quoted as saying, "Credit you give yourself is not worth having".

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The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is named for him. F. Scott Fitzgerald based the character of Monroe Stahr in The Last Tycoon on Thalberg.

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The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Last Tycoon

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