[2][3] His output in the early film sound era demonstrated his talent for deploying cinematic innovations that were startling in their day.

[8][9][10] His mother, Virginie (née Kalantarian), from a family of wealthy landowners and financiers, served as a director of the Armenian theatre.

In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1905, ethnic violence arose in Tiflis, and the family moved to Paris for three years, where Mamoulian became fluent in French.

[16][17] In 1915, his father enrolled him at the Imperial Moscow University to study law, but Mamoulian turned to literary pursuits and student stage productions.

[18][19][20] The Mamoulian family, sympathetic to the Czarist regime, fled Russia during the turmoil of the 1917 revolution and the ensuing civil war.

[41] He directed the first three-strip Technicolor film Becky Sharp (1935), based on Thackeray's Vanity Fair[42][43] as well as the 1937 musical High, Wide and Handsome.

[44] Blood and Sand, about bullfighting, was filmed in Technicolor, and used color schemes based on the work of Spanish artists such as Diego Velázquez and El Greco.

The film Silk Stockings starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, with Janis Paige and Peter Lorre in supporting roles.

[62] Mamoulian died on December 4, 1987, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital of natural causes at age 90 in Woodland Hills, California.

[12][63][61] On February 8, 1960, for his contribution to the motion picture industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1709 Vine Street.