Daniel Melnick

Daniel Melnick (April 21, 1932 – October 13, 2009) was an American film producer and movie studio executive who started working in Hollywood as a teenager in television and then became the producer of such films as All That Jazz, Altered States and Straw Dogs. Melnick's films won more than 20 Academy Awards out of some 80 nominations.^[1]

Early life and education

Melnick was born on April 21, 1932, in New York City, to parents Celia and Benjamin Melnick, an immigrant from Russia who was killed in a car crash when Melnick was a child. His mother remarried, and Melnick attended the High School of Performing Arts.^[2] After high school, Melnick attended New York University.^[1] He served in the United States Army during the 1950s, where he produced entertainment for troops while stationed at New Jersey's Fort Dix and in Oklahoma.^[2]

Television, film and theater

After relocating to Hollywood as a 19-year old, he became CBS Television's youngest producer, and then shortly thereafter was hired by ABC, where he worked on the development of such programs as The Flintstones and The Fugitive. Melnick became an independent producer, forming a company with David Susskind that produced the Emmy Award-winning TV productions aired on CBS, with Ages of Man starring John Gielgud in 1966, which included readings from William Shakespeare's works ranging from Romeo and Juliet to Richard II, with critic Jack Gould of The New York Times calling it "a viewing occasion to be treasured".^[3] In 1967 they presented Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, starring Lee J. Cobb, a production that Jack Gould of The Times described as one "that will stand as the supreme understanding of the tragedy of Willy Loman."^[4] They also produced the secret agent satire Get Smart that ran from 1965 to 1970 on CBS and NBC, as well as the police drama N.Y.P.D. that ran on ABC from 1967–69.^[1] The firm, Talent Associates, was bought out by Norton Simon, Inc. in August 1968 for an undisclosed price, with the commitment that the unit would operate independently and the principals would stay on in senior positions to manage the company.^[5]

Together with Joseph E. Levine of Embassy Pictures, Susskind and Melnick produced the Broadway theatre musical comedy Kelly, by Eddie Lawrence and Mark Charlap.^[6] Promotion for the play included an event on the Brooklyn Bridge with a series of chorus girls.^[7] The play, a story about the 1886 incident of Steve Brodie who (claimed to have) jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived, opened on February 16, 1965.^[8] The play lasted only one performance on Broadway, which was later described by Melnick's son as "not his favorite moment in history", but nonetheless one he wore with grace.^[1]

The 1971 psychological thriller Straw Dogs was his first feature film. He was hired by MGM, where his films included the 1975 Neil Simon comedy The Sunshine Boys, the 1976 production of Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay for Network, directed by Sidney Lumet, a satire of television production that was credited with boosting the studio's financial performance.^[1] he also mined the studio's archives to create the That's Entertainment! series of compilation films.^[2] He was hired by Columbia Pictures as its president in June 1978 to replace David Begelman, who had resigned in the wake of an embezzlement scandal. There he oversaw the development of the 1978 picture Midnight Express and the 1979 films Kramer vs. Kramer and The China Syndrome.^[1][2]

In 1980, he moved to 20th Century Fox where he completed Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, with Fox paying for filming that Columbia would not finance. That same year he produced Altered States with Warner Brothers, an adaptation of a Chayefsky novel that Columbia was unwilling to fund. Melnick's later films included the Steve Martin 1987 comedy Roxanne, an adaption of the classic play Cyrano de Bergerac, and the 1999 action comedy Blue Streak (1999), which was his final film credit.^[1]

Personal

He married Linda Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers in February 1955 at the Manhattan home of her parents.^[9] Their son, Peter Melnick, became a composer. He fathered a daughter after the couple divorced in 1971.^[2]

His regular poker game would include such Hollywood notables as Johnny Carson, Chevy Chase, Barry Diller, Steve Martin, Carl Reiner and Neil Simon.^[1]

Melnick died at age 77 on October 13, 2009, at his home in Los Angeles, because of lung cancer. He was survived by a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.^[1]

References