David O. Selznick filmography

David O. Selznick (1902–1965) was an American motion picture producer whose work consists of three short subjects, 67 feature films, and one television production made between 1923 and 1957.

[5] After helping to guide Paramount into the sound era, Selznick moved to RKO Radio in 1931 where he served as the studio's executive producer.

During his time at RKO he oversaw the production of King Kong (1933) and helped to develop Katharine Hepburn and Myrna Loy into major film stars.

During his two years with the studio he produced elaborate versions of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Charles Dickens' David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities.

In 1935, he left MGM to form his own production company, Selznick International Pictures, where he produced adaptations of Robert Smythe Hichens' The Garden of Allah (1936), Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938).

Also in 1939, Selznick produced his epic version of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, which became the most financially successful film of all time.

When the elder Selznick went bankrupt in 1923, young David took a job as a promoter for a two-reel short about prizefighter Luis Firpo.

[3] I promoted and made for $17,000 a little picture called Roulette … As I recall, it didn't lose any money, but it didn't make any worth mentioning.I become manager of the writer's department, then head of the writer's department, then assistant story editor, then associate story editor, then assistant stooge to Harry Rapf, and then finally was given my chance to make a Tim McCoy Western … I decided that … it would be just as easy to make two of them at a time as one.In October 1926, Selznick secured a job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a script reader for producer Harry Rapf.

[21] After the McCoy Westerns, Selznick was assigned as assistant to producer Hunt Stromberg on the film White Shadows in the South Seas (1928).

Disagreements with Stromberg and senior producer Irving Thalberg over the choice of the film's director (W. S. Van Dyke or Robert J. Flaherty) led to Selznick's termination with the company.

[24] After refusing to sign a new contract with RKO, Selznick returned to MGM in 1933, this time in the position as vice-president in charge of his own unit.

[31] He also took over the operation of Pioneer Pictures, a production company designed to produce films in Technicolor and formed by his friend and ex-associate (at RKO) Merian C.

[32] Gone with the Wind was released by MGM as part of a deal with Selznick in exchange for the loan of Clark Gable in the role of Rhett Butler.

[41] I was tired … Additionally, it was crystal clear that the motion picture business was in for a terrible beating from television … My company financed itself with bank loans; and these loans, with interest, had been extended to a total of about $12,000,000 … as part of the plans for the liquidation of my company and its debts, we devised what has since become known as coproduction.In 1949 Selznick closed down his production facilities and he greatly reduced the staff of Selznick Releasing Organization.