Samuel Bronston

Samuel Bronston (né Bronstein; 7 August 1908 – 12 January 1994) was a Bessarabian-born American film producer and media executive. His films have earned a total of seven Academy Award nominations. Born in Bessarabia, Russian Empire (present-day Moldova), Bronston immigrated to the United States in 1937. A year later, he met James Roosevelt, the son of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and moved to Los Angeles. Together, they formed a brief but fruitless partnership. Roosevelt left Hollywood to return to active military service. Bronston then joined Columbia Pictures, and worked as an associate producer on The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942). A year later, in 1943, Bronston founded his namesake studio Samuel Bronston Productions, and produced Jack London (1943) for United Artists. He next collaborated with Lewis Milestone on the war film A Walk in the Sun (1945) and René Clair on the mystery film And Then There Were None (1945); however, Bronston went uncredited as he struggled to raise financing. Bronston left Hollywood and worked as a photographer for the Vatican. There, he produced at least 26 documentary films, in which he explored the Vatican's archives. In 1955, Bronston returned to Hollywood as an independent producer. Four years later, in 1959, Samuel Bronston Productions was relocated to Madrid. Bronston pre-sold his films to international distributors and raised financial capital through private investors, including financier Pierre S. du Pont III. In Madrid, Bronston spearheaded several productions of historical epics, including King of Kings (1961), El Cid (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963), and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). By June 1964, Bronston declared bankruptcy due to the box office failures of The Fall of the Roman Empire and Circus World (1964), in which he owed over US$5.6 million to du Pont III. He subsequently produced Savage Pampas (1966)...