Robert Z. Leonard Net Worth is
$600,000

Mini Biography

Chicago-born Robert Z. Leonard analyzed law in the University or college of Colorado, however the legal occupation proved never to become his forte and he decreased out towards a career within the theater. When his family members relocated to Hollywood in 1907, Leonard wanted function in the fledgling film market, beginning as an acting professional with Selig Polyscope. Though he became a recognised celebrity by 1916, his main interest lay on the far side of the video camera. Embracing directing from 1913, he helmed a brace of brief humor features and got his break when he was designated a serial, The Grasp Important (1914), in 1914. From 1915 to 1919, he was under agreement at Common, where he became chiefly from the movies of his potential wife, the ex-Ziegfeld Follies celebrity Mae Murray. In 1919, Leonard and Murray founded Tiffany Productions, particularly as a way of creating appropriate star vehicles on her behalf. While the organization lingered on as Tiffany-Stahl around the Talisman great deal – among the ‘Poverty Row’ studios turning out inexpensive westerns and also cheaper ‘Chimp Comedies’ (yes, the celebrities had been chimps and a whole lot cheaper to keep up than human beings!) – Leonard and Murray shifted to become listed on the newly-established Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924. Leonard’s union using the volatile Murray finished in divorce in 1925. After clashing with Louis B. Mayer, Murray after that left MGM 2 yrs later. Leonard wedded another celebrity, Gertrude Olmstead, and continued to become among the studio’s most dependable agreement directors for another three decades. Fitted in perfectly using the studio room program, he was section of a highly effective team of best craftsmen beneath the auspices of maker Hunt Stromberg, turning out ratings of musicals and light comedies. Though not really generally considered by film critics to be among the very best echelon of Hollywood directors, Leonard however capably handled a number of A-grade photos, frequently starring temperamental personalities. Among his many successful strikes for MGM had been the backstage musical Dance Woman (1933); the opulent multi Oscar-winning musical biopic THE FANTASTIC Ziegfeld (1936) (finished on a spending budget of $2 million); basically two of the favorite routine of Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald operettas; and the trendy, witty version of Satisfaction and Prejudice (1940), which typified probably the most luxurious of MGM’s post-Thalberg outfit dramas, scripted by a minimum of Aldous Huxley and starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. Even though many of his films could be dismissed for lacking artistic merit, the simply the fact is that few lost cash at the package office. Leonard offered the general public what they desired: he excelled at offering escapist entertainment, especially with shiny, all-star extravaganzas like Ziegfeld Lady (1941) or Week-End in the Waldorf (1945). It had been ironic, that, in 1949, he produced a uncommon and unsuccessful foray in to the genre of movies noir using the Bribe (1949), an endeavour similarly untypical of its studio room. Starring Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, at her most ravishing, and Vincent Cost as a battle surplus racketeer, the picture bombed in the package office. Maker Pandro S. Berman consequently lamented it as ‘a heap of rubbish’ which should ‘never have already been produced’. In retrospect, ‘The Bribe’, had not been at all poor. In fact, they have rather obtained in stature over time. Scenes from this were actually conspicuously utilized by Steve Martin for his fantastic montage comedy Lifeless Men Don’t Put on Plaid (1982). Leonard still left MGM around the studio room retirement strategy in 1955. Then had a short sojourn in Italy, where he aimed Gina Lollobrigida in Gorgeous But Harmful (1955), before finally producing his swan track at Universal having a less-than-memorable family members film, Kelly and Me (1957). Along with his wife Gertrude, Leonard resided in Beverly Hillsides until his loss of life in August 1968.

Known for movies