Producer of Classic Films, Marvin Mirisch, Dies at 84

Part of a trio of brothers who produced some of the most important films of the ’60s:

After going into business with his eldest brother, Irving, supplying candy to movie theaters, Marvin Mirisch moved to Los Angeles in 1953 to join his two other siblings in the movie production business at Monogram Pictures, which later became Allied Artists.

While there, the Mirisches independently packaged the John Huston films “Moulin Rouge” and “Moby Dick,” which were released by United Artists and Warner Bros., respectively. They also played a role in producing Billy Wilder’s “Love in the Afternoon” and William Wyler’s “Friendly Persuasion,” both for United Artists. Those collaborations led to additional work with a number of prominent directors, paving the way for later success.

In 1957, the brothers left Allied Artists for a deal with United Artists that led to the production of 68 motion pictures over the next 17 years, rivaling the output of the major Hollywood studios.

Those films earned a total of 79 Academy Award nominations and won 23 Oscars, three for best picture — Wilder’s romantic comedy “The Apartment,” starring Jack Lemmon, the musical “West Side Story” and Norman Jewison’s racially charged drama “In the Heat of the Night,” starring Sidney Poitier.

Other films from the Mirisch brothers during this period included Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot,” John Sturges’ “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Great Escape,” Blake Edwards’ “The Pink Panther” and Jewison’s “The Thomas Crowne Affair” and “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians are Coming.”

Harold Mirisch died in 1968, and the brothers culminated their run of UA pictures with the film production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1972. [from Reuters]

Not that is filmmaking.