Arthur Hornblow Jr.


Arthur Hornblow Jr. was an American film producer. Four of his movies received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture.

Biography

Hornblow was the son of Arthur Hornblow Sr., a writer who edited Theatre Magazine in New York City.
Hornblow graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, New York City, in 1911, before studying at Dartmouth College and New York Law School, and was a member of the fraternity Theta Delta Chi. He served in counter-intelligence during World War I, and then tried his hand at playwriting. He was then hired as a production supervisor by Sam Goldwyn at Paramount in 1927.
Initially, he specialized in the popular screwball comedies, eventually giving Billy Wilder his first directing job, and producing several films starring Bob Hope. These included The Cat and the Canary, The Ghost Breakers and Nothing But the Truth. In 1942 he moved to MGM where he produced Gaslight and several film noir. In the 1950s, as an independent producer rather than a studio employee, he worked on the musical Oklahoma and the courtroom drama Witness for the Prosecution, directed by his former Paramount colleague, Wilder.
He gave aspiring actress Marie Windsor her first screen test, and Constance Ockelman her new name, Veronica Lake.
Four of his movies received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture.

Death

Hornblow died on July 17, 1976 at Lennox Hill Hospital at the age of 83.

Oscar nominations

As a producer he was nominated for an Academy Award 'Best Picture' Oscar four times, but failed to win.Ruggles of Red Gap, comedy-western with Charles Laughton.Hold Back the Dawn, romantic-comedy with Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland.Gaslight, thriller with Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten.Witness for the Prosecution, courtroom drama with Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, and Elsa Lanchester.

Legacy

He allowed a version of his last name be used by C. S. Forester for the fictional sea captain Horatio Hornblower.

Selected filmography

Four Hours to Kill! The Princess Comes Across Easy Living High, Wide, and Handsome Midnight The Cat and the Canary The Ghost Breakers Arise, My Love The Major and the Minor Gaslight Desire Me The Hucksters Cass Timberlane The Asphalt Jungle Million Dollar Mermaid Oklahoma!

Books

A History of the Theatre in America From its Beginnings to the Present Time Vol. 1, A History of the Theatre in America From its Beginnings to the Present Time Vol. 2,
With Leonora Hornblow:Animals Do the Strangest Things, illus. Michael K. Frith, 62 pp.,