Jerry Wald

The ferociously energetic producer of Mildred Pierce and Peyton Place — a former radio columnist whose hustle may have inspired fiction's ultimate Hollywood operator (1911-1962).

Born

1911

Died

1962

Also:
Writer
Director

Credits on file

Decades active

Awards

In short · Produced for four decades — 87 credits, 1 Academy Award win.

Remembered for

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Biography

Wald came out of New York, writing a radio column while still a teenager and parlaying it into screenwriting gigs at Warner Bros. in the early sound years. He wrote fast and constantly, then moved into producing, where his relentless drive — a torrent of memos, story ideas, and telephone calls — became legend. That hustle is widely thought to have colored Budd Schulberg's Sammy Glick, the amoral striver of What Makes Sammy Run?, though Schulberg always denied a direct model.

Whatever the inspiration, Wald delivered. At Warners he produced Mildred Pierce, the noir-tinged melodrama that won Joan Crawford her Oscar and comeback, along with the fine John Huston crime drama Key Largo and the wrenching Johnny Belinda. He had a special feel for the "woman's picture" and the glossy, emotional bestseller adaptation.

Moving to Columbia and then 20th Century-Fox, he specialized in turning steamy novels into big pictures: Peyton Place, the small-town scandal saga that became a sensation, the William Faulkner–derived The Long, Hot Summer that helped launch Paul Newman, and the D.H. Lawrence adaptation Sons and Lovers. He also produced the beloved romance An Affair to Remember. He earned four Best Picture nominations and the Thalberg Award, though never a competitive Oscar.

Wald worked at a punishing pace to the end, dying of a heart attack in 1962 at just 50. Prolific, brash, and commercially unerring, he was the embodiment of the producer as pure, driving energy.

Filmography · 87 of 87

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