Paul Bern

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Paul Bern , actually Paul Levy , (born December 3, 1889 in Wandsbek , † September 5, 1932 in Los Angeles , California ) was a German- American theater actor, film producer , film director and screenwriter .

Life

Paul Bern was born in Wandsbek, a village that was still independent at the time, which only came to Hamburg from Schleswig-Holstein in 1937 under the Großhamburg Act . He spent his childhood and youth in the USA, where he began a career as a stage actor and producer since 1911. He first came to film as an editor and soon switched to screenwriting . He worked for Josef von Sternberg and Ernst Lubitsch , among others . He also worked as a director on some of Florence Vidor and Pola Negri's projects , gradually advancing to the rank of producer .

He moved from Paramount to MGM in 1926 , where he quickly became Irving Thalberg's closest confidante . Bern was commissioned by Thalberg, among other things, to monitor the shooting of all Greta Garbo films. Bern had a reputation for understanding women and over the years became friends with some of Hollywood's most famous female stars , including Joan Crawford , who at one point was about to marry Bern.

The so-called "farewell letter"

In July 1932, Bern married the aspiring actress Jean Harlow , who had only recently switched to MGM after the studio had bought her contract from Howard Hughes . Bern gave Harlow the title role in Feuerkopf , which made her a sex symbol practically overnight. The marriage was not a happy one and soon the partly public quarrels between the two became well known. On September 5, 1932, Paul Bern's body was found next to a “farewell letter”. He had a gunshot wound in the head. The developing scandal endangered the career of Jean Harlow, but the studio managed to lead the actress somewhat unscathed through the turmoil.

Over the years there have been repeated speculations about the circumstances of Bern's death, especially since the wording of the “farewell letter”, which immediately appeared in the press, opened up a great deal of interpretation. It was also always unclear who the actual addressee of the letter was. Ben Hecht and Samuel Marx have always claimed over the years that it was really a murder and that a former lover shot Bern.

Filmography

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bern, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levy, Paul (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American theater actor, film producer, film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Wandsbek
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1932
Place of death Los Angeles , California