Buddy Adler

American film producer

Maurice "Buddy" Adler

Adler in 1958

Born|

E. Maurice Adler

(1906-06-22)June 22, 1906

New York City, U.S.

Died| July 12, 1960(1960-07-12) (aged 54)

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Resting place| Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California
Years active| 1939–1960
Spouse| Anita Louise (1940–1960)

E. Maurice "Buddy" Adler (June 22, 1906 – July 12, 1960) was an American film producer and production head for 20th Century Fox studios.

In 1954, his production of From Here to Eternity won the Academy Award for Best Picture and in 1956, his Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing was nominated for best picture. Adler also produced the 1956 film Bus Stop, starring Marilyn Monroe.[1]

## Biography

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Adler was born in New York City in 1906 (some references have listed his birth year as 1908 or 1909) with "Buddy" as his childhood nickname. His family ran a small chain of department stores and Adler did advertising copy for the chain. He began writing short stories in his spare time and published them under the name "Bradley Allen". In 1936 he moved to Hollywood where he wrote the Pete Smith short features for MGM. He wrote the screenplay for the short documentary film Quicker'n a Wink, which won an Oscar in 1940. He also owned a small string of movie showhouses, called the Hitching Post.[2]

During World War II, Adler served in the Signal Corps (1941–1945), ending with the rank of colonel. [3]

In 1954 Alder moved from Columbia to Fox, where he produced several films.[2]

### Head of Fox

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In 1956 Adler was named as Head of Production for 20th Century Fox, replacing Darryl F. Zanuck, and in 1957, he established the Fox Talent School, with a $1 million budget. Actors who had their first starring roles under Adler include Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, Tommy Sands, Fabian, Stuart Whitman, Suzy Parker, Joanne Woodward, France Nuyen, May Britt, Bradford Dillman, Tony Randall, Barry Coe, and Diane Varsi.[2][4][5]

## Personal life

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Adler was born in New York City. He moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1936 and resided there for the rest of his life. In 1940 he married actress Anita Louise Fremault (1915–1970), with whom he had two children. The family were at his bedside when he died in 1960, from lung cancer.[2] Joan Collins told a story on The Graham Norton Show about a party where Adler asked Joan if she would like her pick of roles from upcoming Fox productions, and she said yes. He then told her that although he was older than her and married, if she was "nice" to him, he could do that for her. She rebuffed him and said that she was not interested in using the casting couch to get ahead in her career.

## Awards

[edit]

Adler received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1957.[6] In 1958 he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.

## Death

[edit]

On July 12, 1960, Adler died of lung cancer, aged 54, in Los Angeles and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. His widow, who is buried there as well, survived him by ten years.[7]

## Selected filmography

[edit]

* Flaming Star (1960, but died a week before filming started)
* North to Alaska (1960, died midway through principal photography)
* The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
* South Pacific (1958)
* A Hatful of Rain (1957)
* Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
* Anastasia (1956)
* Bus Stop (1956)
* The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)
* The Bottom of the Bottle (1956)
* The Lieutenant Wore Skirts (1956)
* The Left Hand of God (1955)
* Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
* House of Bamboo (1955)
* Soldier of Fortune (1955)
* Violent Saturday (1955)
* From Here to Eternity (1953)
* Last of the Comanches (1953)
* The Harlem Globetrotters (1951)
* Saturday's Hero (1951)
* A Woman of Distinction (1950)
* Tell It to the Judge (1949)
* The Dark Past (1948)
* Quicker'n a Wink (1940)

## References

[edit]

* Biography portal

1. ^ Aubrey Solomon (2002). Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 120\. ISBN 9780810842441.
2. ^ a b c d Producer Buddy Adler Dies at 51: Wife Anita Louise at Bedside of Fox Studio Aide (Los Angeles Times, 13 July 1960. p. B1)
3. ^ A. Schmidt. ON THE ELEVATION OF MR. ADLER: How Buddy Adler Became 'White-Haired' Producer At Columbia Studio (New York Times, 27 September 1953
4. ^ Philip K. Scheuer. $4 MILLION LATER: 20th Has Its Stars of Tomorrow—Today. 20th Builds Stable of Own Stars (Los Angeles Times, 16 August 1959). p. E1
5. ^ Philip K. Scheuer. Adler Dispels Film Gloom: 20th Executive Cites Upsurge in Business as Bright Omen (Los Angeles Times, 17 February 1958). p. C9
6. ^ THALBERG AWARD FOR BUDDY ADLER: Fox Production Head Hailed by Motion Picture Academy (New York Times, 22 March 1957). p. 26
7. ^ Scott Wilson. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2. McFarland & Co. (2016) ISBN 0786479922

Awards for Buddy Adler

* v
* t
* e

Academy Award for Best Picture

1951–1975|

* Arthur Freed (1951)
* Cecil B. DeMille (1952)
* Buddy Adler (1953)
* Sam Spiegel (1954)
* Harold Hecht (1955)
* Michael Todd (1956)
* Sam Spiegel (1957)
* Arthur Freed (1958)
* Sam Zimbalist (1959)
* Billy Wilder (1960)
* Robert Wise (1961)
* Sam Spiegel (1962)
* Tony Richardson (1963)
* Jack L. Warner (1964)
* Robert Wise (1965)
* Fred Zinnemann (1966)
* Walter Mirisch (1967)
* John Woolf (1968)
* Jerome Hellman (1969)
* Frank McCarthy (1970)
* Philip D'Antoni (1971)
* Albert S. Ruddy (1972)
* Tony Bill, Julia Phillips and Michael Phillips (1973)
* Francis Ford Coppola, Gray Frederickson and Fred Roos (1974)
* Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz (1975)

1976–present|

* Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler (1976)
* Charles H. Joffe (1977)
* Michael Cimino, Michael Deeley, John Peverall and Barry Spikings (1978)
* Stanley R. Jaffe (1979)
* Ronald L. Schwary (1980)
* David Puttnam (1981)
* Richard Attenborough (1982)
* James L. Brooks (1983)
* Saul Zaentz (1984)
* Sydney Pollack (1985)
* Arnold Kopelson (1986)
* Jeremy Thomas (1987)
* Mark Johnson (1988)
* Lili Fini Zanuck and Richard D. Zanuck (1989)
* Kevin Costner and Jim Wilson (1990)
* Ron Bozman, Edward Saxon and Kenneth Utt (1991)
* Clint Eastwood (1992)
* Branko Lustig, Gerald R. Molen and Steven Spielberg (1993)
* Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey and Steve Tisch (1994)
* Bruce Davey, Mel Gibson and Alan Ladd Jr. (1995)
* Saul Zaentz (1996)
* James Cameron and Jon Landau (1997)
* Donna Gigliotti, Marc Norman, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein and Edward Zwick (1998)
* Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks (1999)
* David Franzoni, Branko Lustig and Douglas Wick (2000)
* Brian Grazer and Ron Howard (2001)
* Martin Richards (2002)
* Peter Jackson, Barrie M. Osborne and Fran Walsh (2003)
* Clint Eastwood, Tom Rosenberg and Albert S. Ruddy (2004)
* Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman (2005)
* Graham King (2006)
* Ethan Coen, Joel Coen and Scott Rudin (2007)
* Christian Colson (2008)
* Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro (2009)
* Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin (2010)
* Thomas Langmann (2011)
* Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov (2012)
* Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen and Brad Pitt (2013)
* Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole (2014)
* Blye Pagon Faust, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Michael Sugar (2015)
* Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Adele Romanski (2016)
* J. Miles Dale and Guillermo del Toro (2017)
* Jim Burke, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga and Charles B. Wessler (2018)
* Bong Joon-ho and Kwak Sin-ae (2019)
* Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears and Chloé Zhao (2020)
* Fabrice Gianfermi, Philippe Rousselet, Patrick Wachsberger (2021)
* Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang (2022)
* Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, and Christopher Nolan (2023)
* Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, and Sean Baker (2024)

* v
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* e

Cecil B. DeMille Award

* Cecil B. DeMille (1951)
* Walt Disney (1952)
* Darryl F. Zanuck (1953)
* Jean Hersholt (1954)
* Jack L. Warner (1955)
* Mervyn LeRoy (1956)
* Buddy Adler (1957)
* Maurice Chevalier (1958)
* Bing Crosby (1959)
* Fred Astaire (1960)
* Judy Garland (1961)
* Bob Hope (1962)
* Joseph E. Levine (1963)
* James Stewart (1964)
* John Wayne (1965)
* Charlton Heston (1966)
* Kirk Douglas (1967)
* Gregory Peck (1968)
* Joan Crawford (1969)
* Frank Sinatra (1970)
* Alfred Hitchcock (1971)
* Samuel Goldwyn (1972)
* Bette Davis (1973)
* Hal B. Wallis (1974)
* No Award (1975)
* Walter Mirisch (1976)
* Red Skelton (1977)
* Lucille Ball (1978)
* Henry Fonda (1979)
* Gene Kelly (1980)
* Sidney Poitier (1981)
* Laurence Olivier (1982)
* Paul Newman (1983)
* Elizabeth Taylor (1984)
* Barbara Stanwyck (1985)
* Anthony Quinn (1986)
* Clint Eastwood (1987)
* Doris Day (1988)
* Audrey Hepburn (1989)
* Jack Lemmon (1990)
* Robert Mitchum (1991)
* Lauren Bacall (1992)
* Robert Redford (1993)
* Sophia Loren (1994)
* Sean Connery (1995)
* Dustin Hoffman (1996)
* Shirley MacLaine (1997)
* Jack Nicholson (1998)
* Barbra Streisand (1999)
* Al Pacino (2000)
* Harrison Ford (2001)
* Gene Hackman (2002)
* Michael Douglas (2003)
* Robin Williams (2004)
* Anthony Hopkins (2005)
* Warren Beatty (2006)
* No Award (2007)
* Steven Spielberg (2008)
* Martin Scorsese (2009)
* Robert De Niro (2010)
* Morgan Freeman (2011)
* Jodie Foster (2012)
* Woody Allen (2013)
* George Clooney (2014)
* Denzel Washington (2015)
* Meryl Streep (2016)
* Oprah Winfrey (2017)
* Jeff Bridges (2018)
* Tom Hanks (2019)
* Jane Fonda (2020)
* No Award (2021)
* Eddie Murphy (2022)
* No Award (2023)
* Viola Davis (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

* Darryl F. Zanuck (1938)
* Hal B. Wallis (1939)
* David O. Selznick (1940)
* Walt Disney (1942)
* Sidney Franklin (1943)
* Hal B. Wallis (1944)
* Darryl F. Zanuck (1945)
* Samuel Goldwyn (1947)
* Jerry Wald (1949)
* Darryl F. Zanuck (1951)
* Arthur Freed (1952)
* Cecil B. DeMille (1953)
* George Stevens (1954)
* Buddy Adler (1957)
* Jack L. Warner (1959)
* Stanley Kramer (1962)
* Sam Spiegel (1964)
* William Wyler (1966)
* Robert Wise (1967)
* Alfred Hitchcock (1968)
* Ingmar Bergman (1971)
* Lawrence Weingarten (1974)
* Mervyn LeRoy (1976)
* Pandro S. Berman (1977)
* Walter Mirisch (1978)
* Ray Stark (1980)
* Albert R. Broccoli (1982)
* Steven Spielberg (1987)
* Billy Wilder (1988)
* David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck (1991)
* George Lucas (1992)
* Clint Eastwood (1995)
* Saul Zaentz (1997)
* Norman Jewison (1999)
* Warren Beatty (2000)
* Dino De Laurentiis (2001)
* John Calley (2009)
* Francis Ford Coppola (2010)
* Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall (2018)
* Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (2024)

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