David O.

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David O. Selznick.
David O. Selznick (1902-1965), American producer, whose motion pictures, meticulous in detail and commercially successful, were among the finest of the 1930s and
1940s. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Selznick began working in the New York City office of his father, Lewis J. Selznick, an ambitious film mogul, when he was still a
teenager. There he learned about film promotion, distribution, and production on a grand scale. Lewis Selznick, whose business was perennially overextended, went
bankrupt in the early 1920s, and his son had to begin making his own way in the motion-picture industry. Selznick made two newsreel-style documentaries in 1923 and
his first feature, Roulette, in 1924.
In 1926 Selznick went to Hollywood, California, taking a position at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as an assistant story editor, then becoming an associate producer and
eventually a production supervisor. After he was fired from MGM, he went to work for Paramount Pictures in 1927 as head of its story and writing staff, supervising the
production of several films in the late 1920s. In 1930 he married Irene Mayer, daughter of Louis B. Mayer, the powerful head of MGM, although he spurned his fatherin-law's offer to return to that studio. Instead, the following year Selznick moved to Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) as vice president in charge of production. There he
demonstrated his eye for talent by hiring such luminaries as actor Katharine Hepburn and director George Cukor. Under Selznick's supervision, the studio turned out
such films as A Bill of Divorcement (1932), What Price Hollywood? (1932), and Little Women (1933).
In 1933 Mayer succeeded in luring Selznick back to MGM by making him a vice president and offering him his own production unit. At MGM Selznick showed the first
signs of his predilection for literary properties and his passion for detail by overseeing a string of prestigious films that included Dinner at Eight (1933), David
Copperfield (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), and A Tale of Two Cities (1935). In 1935 he decided to start his own company, Selznick International Pictures.
At his studio Selznick was able to indulge his penchant for being involved in every aspect of production, and his voluminous memos to staff members at all levels soon
became legendary. His insistence upon quality became a hallmark of all his productions, beginning with such films as Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), A Star Is Born
(1937), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), and Intermezzo (1939).
During the late 1930s Selznick's attention was focused on his heroic production of Gone With the Wind (1939), one of the most famous films ever made and for many
years the holder of several box-office records. He continued to demonstrate his instinct for talent by bringing English-born director Alfred Hitchcock to the United States
and issuing him a contract, and he promoted the careers of such promising actors as Ingrid Bergman, Joan Fontaine, Joseph Cotten, and Gregory Peck. Selznick's
working relationship with Hitchcock, although often edgy, fostered such classics as Rebecca (1940), Spellbound (1945), and Notorious (1946).
During the late 1940s Selznick's interest in production seemed to falter, and he spent more time making profitable deals for the loan of his star actors to other
production companies. An important Selznick picture of this period was the Western Duel in the Sun (1946), starring Jennifer Jones, who was to marry Selznick in 1949.
By this time, his divorce from Irene Mayer, his often faulty business judgment, and a severe gambling habit had left Selznick with serious financial problems, and the
last of his business interests were dissolved in 1948. He continued to produce, infrequently, as an independent coproducer. His last film, starring Jones, was A Farewell
to Arms (1957).

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