Mervyn LeRoy

Mervyn LeRoy

Although he would later take credit for discovering actress Loretta Young, Young's daughter Judy Lewis wrote that actually silent film actress Colleen Moore discovered Young.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 527-530. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 651-657. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Cousin of producer Jesse L. Lasky.

Credited with renaming "Judy" Turner as Lana Turner



Daughter with wife Doris Warner: Linda LeRoy Janklow, wife of literary agent Mort Janklow.

Did not mention being married to actress Edna Murphy in his 1974 autobiography, even though they were married for almost six years.

Directed 13 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Greer Garson, Van Heflin, Ronald Colman, Susan Peters, Walter Pidgeon, Leo Genn, Peter Ustinov, Jack Lemmon, Nancy Kelly, Eileen Heckart and Patty McCormack. Sondergaard, Lemmon and Heflin won Oscars for their performances in one of LeRoys movies.

Father of actor Warner LeRoy.

Interred at Forest Lawn (Glendale), Glendale, California, USA, in the Garden of Honor.

Introduced actor Ronald Reagan to actress Nancy Davis who both later married.

LeRoy was a family friend of Little Rascals star Tommy Bond and heavily influenced Bond's son, Producer/Director Thomas R. Bond II, in which Bond II owes to Leroy and director Frank Capra most of his knowledge in directing and producing.

Profiled in "American Classic Screen Interviews" (Scarecrow Press). [2010]

Since 1980, the Mervyn Le Roy Handicap has been run at Hollywood Park. LeRoy was one of the organizers of the racetrack and its president until 1985.


GourmetGiftBaskets.com