Julian Blaustein

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Julian Blaustein (born May 30, 1913 in New York City , † June 20, 1995 in Beverly Hills , Los Angeles ) was an American film producer and screenwriter and later professor at Stanford University .

life and work

In his youth he attended the Boston Latin School and then went to Harvard University . He graduated from Harvard in 1933, during the Great Depression . After graduating, he attended the US Army Air Force Academy at Radolph Field , Texas for a year before deciding to move to Hollywood .

From 1934 on, he initially worked for Universal Pictures ; He rose there up to the head of the "Story Department", ie he was responsible for developing and monitoring the development of new scripts. In 1939 he moved to the MCA talent agency in the same position, from where he was poached by Paramount Pictures that same year . After the outbreak of World War II he was involved in the production of military training and information films for the Army Signal Corps , he directed the part of the production in Astoria (New York) and produced over 250 training films during the war.

At the end of the war he returned to Los Angeles, worked for David O. Selznick Productions as editorial supervisor and was responsible for all production activities. In 1949 he moved to 20th Century Fox as a producer and soon became executive producer , responsible for all of the studio's productions. During this time he produced, among other things, The Broken Arrow based on the book Blood Brother by Elliot Arnold, a film in which the native peoples of America were portrayed much more fairly than was common at the time.

Another movie worth mentioning is The Day the Earth Stood Still , a science fiction film he produced and directed by his friend Robert Wise . Julian Blaustein understood science fiction films as a parable, and so was The Day on which the Earth Stood Still for him a parable about the Cold War . The hero of the film, played by Michael Rennie , comes to earth to call on humanity to coexist peacefully and to show them the danger of different behavior. In 1952 he produced the thriller Temptation on 809 with Marilyn Monroe in her first serious role.

In 1955 he left the studio and worked from now on as an independent producer. It emerged u. a. the films Cowboy (1958), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Khartoum (1966) in Los Angeles and London . He worked with various film studios, including MGM , United Artists , Universal and Columbia Pictures .

In 1973 he became a professor at Stanford. There he initially taught "documentary writing and directing", based on his experience with training films for the US military, and later he was in charge of the master's program in "Screenwriting". Many of his students have made significant contributions to film development.

Julian Blaustein died on June 20, 1995 of cancer.

Filmography (selection)

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literature

  • Larry Ceplair: Julian Blaustein: An Unusual Movie Producer in Cold War Hollywood , in: Film History, Vol. 21, No. 3, Producers and Directors (2009), pp. 257-275.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical data of Julian Blaustein in: America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry , by Daniel Eagan, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2009, p. 447
personal data
SURNAME Blaustein, Julian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film producer and screenwriter, and later professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1995
Place of death Beverly Hills , Los Angeles