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Anatole Litvak

 
Director: Anatole Litvak
  • Born: May 10, 1902 in Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire
  • Died: Dec 15, 1974 in Neuilly, France
  • Occupation: Director, Writer
  • Active: '30s-'60s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Romance
  • Career Highlights: Napoléon, Anastasia, Sorry, Wrong Number
  • First Major Screen Credit: Napoléon (1927)

Biography

Born in Kiev, Michael Anatole Litwak was a stage actor and assistant director as a teenager. He entered Soviet cinema in 1923, working in Nordkino studios as a set decorator and assistant director. He directed his first film, the 1925 release Tatiana (Hearts and Dollars), but left the Soviet Union that year for Germany, where he edited G.W. Pabst's Die Freudlose Gasse (The Joyless Street, 1925), assistant directed, and helmed the early '30s features Dolly Macht Karriere (1931), Nie Wieder Liebe (1932), and Das Lied Einer Nacht (1933). Fleeing the Nazis, Litvak directed films in England and France, among them the international hit Mayerling (1936). He came to Hollywood in 1937, where he helmed many handsome and polished features, specializing in crime films (The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse [1938], Confessions of a Nazi Spy [1939], Castle on the Hudson [1940], Out of the Fog, [1941]) and romantic dramas (The Sisters [1938], All This and Heaven Too [1953]). He worked on several Army documentaries during World War II, and co-directed The Nazis Strike (1942), Divide and Conquer (1942), and The Battle of China (1943) with Frank Capra. Litvak made even stonger films after the war: Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), The Snake Pit (1948), Decision Before Dawn (1951), and Anastasia (1956). In the mid-'50s he began making films in Europe; standouts of his late career are the thrillers The Night of the Generals (1967) and The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970). ~ All Movie Guide
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Anatole Litvak
Born Michael Anatole Litvak
May 10, 1902(1902-05-10)
Kiev, Ukraine
Died December 15, 1974 (aged 72)
Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Spouse(s) Miriam Hopkins
Sophie Steur

Anatole Litvak (Анатоль Литвак) (May 10, 1902 – December 15, 1974) was a Ukrainian-born filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in a various countries and languages. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Snake Pit (1948).

Contents

Early years

He was born Mikhail Anatol Litwak into a Jewish family in the city of Kiev in what was then part of the Russian Empire. As a teenager, he worked at a theater in St. Petersburg and took acting lessons at the State drama school. Before the rise of the Nazis, he lived and worked in Germany where he made his first few films at the beginning of the 1930s, but quickly fled to England and France, where he made several successful films leading to a contract offer from a Hollywood studio. In 1940, his film All This and Heaven Too was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture.

Litvak served with the United States Army during World War II and joined with fellow director Frank Capra to make the Why We Fight film series. Because of Litvak's ability to speak Russian, German, and French, he played a key role as the head of the army's photography division responsible for documenting the U.S. D-Day landing on Normandy.

At the end of the war, he returned to filmmaking and, in 1948, Litvak was Oscar nominated as Best Director for The Snake Pit. This film and his 1951 production of Decision Before Dawn were both nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. After the mid-1950s, he began filming in Europe. Most notable was Anastasia (1956) filmed in Paris and starring Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes. The film was a fictitious imagining of the mystery surrounding the Grand Duchess Anastasia. The movie enjoyed huge commercial success. In 1961, at the Cannes Film Festival his Goodbye Again was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

Private life

In 1937, Litvak became the third husband of American actress Miriam Hopkins. Their short-lived marriage ended in divorce in 1939. He married a second time to costume designer Sophie Steur, who worked on some of his films. They remained married until his death.

Anatole Litvak died in 1974 in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6633 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

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