- published: 02 Jan 2014
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Mervyn LeRoy (October 15, 1900 - September 13, 1987) was an American film director, film producer and sometime actor.
Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake. (His paternal grandfather owned a successful San Francisco department store that was destroyed in the quake; the store was heavily insured, but the insurance company went bankrupt in the aftermath of the earthquake.) To make money, young Mervyn sold newspapers and entered talent shows as a singer. Through this he worked his way into vaudeville. When his act broke up, he and his cousin, Jesse Lasky, went to Hollywood.
LeRoy worked in costumes, processing labs and as a camera assistant until he became a gag writer and actor in silent films. His first directing job was in 1927's No Place to Go. When his movies made lots of money without costing too much, he became well-received in the movie business.
In 1931 he directed two key films which launched Edward G. Robinson into major stardom, the Oscar-nominated critique of tabloid journalism Five Star Final, and the classic gangster epic Little Caesar. From that point forward, LeRoy would be responsible for a diverse variety of films as a director and producer. In 1938 he was chosen as head of production at MGM, where he was responsible for the decision to make The Wizard of Oz. He was responsible for discovering Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Robert Mitchum and Lana Turner.
Actors: Francis X. McCarthy (actor), Sean McCann (actor), Mark Antony Krupa (actor), Robert Higden (actor), Frank Fontaine (actor), Richard Jutras (actor), Aidan Devine (actor), Zeljko Ivanek (actor), Richard Fitzpatrick (actor), James Brolin (actor), John Bourgeois (actor), Alan Fawcett (actor), Alain Goulem (actor), Daniel Pilon (actor), Frank Moore (actor),
Genres: Biography, Drama, Romance,Actors: Fred Coby (actor), Eric Alden (actor), Fred Aldrich (actor), Tom Chatterton (actor), Robert Anderson (actor), Charles Arnt (actor), Griff Barnett (actor), William 'Billy' Benedict (actor), Lee Bennett (actor), Jack Benny (actor), John Bleifer (actor), Phil Brown (actor), Raymond Burr (actor), William Challee (actor), James Conaty (actor),
Plot: Kit Madden is traveling to Hollywood, where her best-selling novel is to be filmed. Aboard the train, she encounters Marines Rusty and Dink, who don't know she is the author of the famous book, and who don't think much of the ideas it proposes. She and Rusty are greatly attracted, but she doesn't know how to deal with his disdain for the book's author.
Keywords: based-on-novel, gas-station, love-at-first-sight, orchid, train, writing