Pandro S. Berman

Known for ProductionBorn 1905-03-28Died 1996-07-13Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Pandro Samuel Berman (March 28, 1905 – July 13, 1996), also known as Pan Berman, was an American film producer. Berman was an assistant director during the 1920s under Mal St. Clair and Ralph Ince. In 1930, Berman was hired as a film editor at RKO Radio Pictures, then became an assistant producer. When RKO supervising producer William LeBaron walked out during production of the ill-fated The Gay Diplomat (1931), Berman took over LeBaron's responsibilities, remaining in the post until 1939. After David O. Selznick became chief of production at RKO in October 1931, Berman managed to survive Selznick's general firing of most of the staff. Selznick named Berman producer for the adaptation of Fannie Hurst's short story Night Bell, a tale of a Jewish doctor's rise out of the Lower East Side ghetto to the height of becoming a Park Avenue physician, which Selznick personally retitled Symphony of Six Million. He ordered Berman to have references to ethnic life in the Jewish ghetto restored. The movie was a box-office and critical success. Both Selznick and Berman were proud of the picture, with Berman later saying it was the "first good movie" he had produced. The Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musicals were in production during the Berman regime, Katharine Hepburn rose to prominence, and such RKO classics as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Gunga Din (both 1939) were completed. Upset when an RKO power play diminished his authority, Berman left for MGM in 1940, where he oversaw such productions as Ziegfeld Girl (1941), National Velvet (1944), The Bribe (1949), Father of the Bride (1950), Blackboard Jungle (1955) and Butterfield 8 (1960). He survived several executive shake-ups at MGM and remained there until 1963, then went into independent production, closing out his career with the unsuccessful Move (1970). Berman was the winner of the 1976 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. Six of his films were nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture: The Gay Divorcee (1934), Alice Adams and Top Hat (both 1935), Stage Door (1937), Father of the Bride (1950), and Ivanhoe (1952). Berman died of congestive heart failure on July 13, 1996 in his Beverly Hills home, aged 91. He was buried at the Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, California.Read more

Movies & web series

On Location with Gunga Din

The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood

The Fountain

Taxi 13

Smooth as Satin

Find Your Man

Stocks and Blondes

Beyond London Lights

A Patch of Blue

Romance in Manhattan

Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men

The Soldier and the Lady

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles

Shall We Dance

A Cinderella Named Elizabeth

National Velvet

Top Hat

Bachelor Mother

The Silver Cord

Astaire and Rogers: Partners in Rhythm

Tea and Sympathy

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Oscars

Father of the Bride

Blackboard Jungle

Stage Door

The Long, Long Trailer

Roberta

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

The Prisoner of Zenda

In Name Only

Sweet Bird of Youth

Fifth Avenue Girl

Vivacious Lady

The Prize

Hat, Coat and Glove

The Age of Consent

Ivanhoe

The Three Musketeers

The Seventh Cross

Swing Time

The Gay Divorcee

The Reluctant Debutante

Madame Bovary

Love Crazy

That Girl from Paris

Follow the Fleet