Pandro Samuel Berman (March 28, 1905 – July 13, 1996), known as
Pandro S. Berman, was an
Academy Award-winning
American film producer.
His father Henry was general manager of
Universal Pictures during
Hollywood's formative years. The younger Berman (Pan to his friends) spent most of the 1920s as an
assistant director, learning the business from such masters as
Mal St. Clair and
Tod Browning.
In 1930, Berman was hired as a
film editor at fledgling
RKO Radio Pictures, then became an assistant producer. When RKO supervising producer
William LeBaron walked out during production of the ill-fated
The Gay Diplomat (1931), Berman took over LeBaron's responsibilities, remaining in the driver's seat until 1939. He managed to survive
David O. Selznick’s general firing of most of the staff, the independent producer recognising something in Berman that warranted making him his assistant.
During the Berman regime, the
Fred Astaire/
Ginger Rogers musicals hit their peak,
Katharine Hepburn rose to prominence, and such RKO classics as
The Hunchback of Notre Dame and
Gunga Din (both 1939) came to fruition. Berman was willing to give creative people plenty of elbow room, but there were limits; having been coaxed by Katharine Hepburn and
director George Cukor to push through production of the 1936 film
Sylvia Scarlett, Berman reacted to the poor audience response to that film (the worst in RKO's history) by telling Hepburn and Cukor that he never wanted to see their faces again!
Upset when an RKO power-play diminished his authority, Berman left for
MGM in 1940, where he oversaw such productions as
Ziegfeld Girl (1941),
National Velvet (1944),
The Bribe (1949),
Father of the Bride (1950),
Blackboard Jungle (1955) and
BUtterfield 8 (1960). He survived several executive shake-ups at MGM and remained there until 1963, then went into independent production, closing out his career with the unsuccessful
Move (1970).
The winner of the 1976
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (Berman was considered to be RKO’s equivalent of Thalberg during the 30s), Pandro S. Berman became a sort of guru to film historians in his twilight years, providing crystal-clear insights into the day-to-day operations of the old Hollywood Studio System.
When Berman was in his late 30's he was thought to be having an affair with actress Lana Turner.
Berman died of congestive heart failure on Saturday, July 13, 1996 in his Beverly Hills home; he was 91.
Six of his films were unsuccessfully nominated for
Academy Award for Best Picture:
The Gay Divorcee (1934),
Alice Adams and
Top Hat (both 1935),
Stage Door (1937),
Father of the Bride (1950), and
Ivanhoe (1952).
Selected filmography
