Pete Smith (film producer)

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Pete Smith (actually Peter Schmidt , born September 4, 1892 in New York City , New York , USA , † January 12, 1979 in Santa Monica , California , USA ) was an American film producer who, through his "specialties", was humorous documentary short films.

biography

After graduating from business school, Pete Smith began working as a publicist for several magazines. During the silent film era, he began to head the publicity department for the production company "Famous Players-Lasky". The director Marshall Neilan hired him for his own studio. Smith moved to Hollywood for this.

When Neilan's company closed, Smith worked as a freelancer for a short time. In 1925 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired him as director of the publicity department. He held this position until 1930. In 1931 Smith began to produce a series of short films, through which he also gained public recognition. The series, "Pete Smith Specialty", was a series of short documentaries that were humorously moderated by Smith himself. By 1954, Smith had produced over 150 of these short films. 16 of them were nominated for an Oscar, and Smith received the Oscar twice. There was no single topic, Smith covered all sorts of topics in his Specialties, from the latest scientific and technical advances to describing everyday problems.

Pete Smith retired from the film business in 1954. He had made enough short films to have premieres by 1955. Smith lived in retirement in Santa Monica. His health was not good and he had to spend a lot of time in hospitals. In 1979 his condition had deteriorated so much that on January 12th he threw himself out of the window of his sick room on the ninth floor of a hospital.

Pete Smith has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1625 Vine Street.

Awards

Oscar wins

Oscar nominations

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Smith, Pete
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmidt, Peter (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film producer
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , USA
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1979
Place of death Santa Monica , California , USA