biography
pronunciation:
[preminjer]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1906–86)
|
| biography:
| Film director and producer, born in Vienna, Austria. He abandoned a career as a lawyer to act and work in the theatre with Max Reinhardt, and he directed his first film in 1931. Coming to the USA (1933) to direct Libel on Broadway, he moved to Hollywood but quarrelled with Darryl Zanuck, who prevented him from directing films. During World War 2, with Zanuck away, he took the opportunity to act (playing Nazis, although Jewish himself) and direct in three films, and then was allowed to produce and direct Laura (1944), which was a big success. In the early 1950s he became an independent producer and director, and enjoyed considerable success with such films as Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Exodus (1960). Although most of his films were simply popular entertainment, his The Moon is Blue (1953) broke new ground with its use of what was then regarded as sexually explicit language (‘virgin’ and ‘pregnant’), while The Man with the Golden Arm (1957) was the first Hollywood film to deal so explicitly with drug addiction. |
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