Sam Warner

Sam Warner in the film magazine Moving Picture World (1919)

Sam Warner (birth name: Szmuel Wonsal ; born August 10, 1887 in Krasnosielc , Poland , † October 5, 1927 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film producer . Together with his brothers Harry , Albert and Jack , he founded the film production company Warner Brothers .

Life

Sam Warner was the son of Jewish emigrants from Poland . Sam was interested in movies from an early age. In 1903 he persuaded his father to buy a film projector and a copy of the early western The Great Train Robbery. He showed the film in a small shop in Ohio . This was the entry into the film business. He opened his first cinema with his older brothers Harry M. Warner and Albert Warner . Before the First World War , Sam went to California with the youngest brother Jack L. Warner . From 1918 Sam built the first film studio of the Warner Brothers , which were finally founded as a production company in 1923. He became the driving force in the team of brothers in the technical field.

The older brothers ran the financial business on the east coast while he and Jack drove the productions. In the mid-1920s, he was the first of Hollywood's great producers to see the future of film in talkies . He persuaded his brothers to invest in this new technology and the result was the first sound film The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson in the lead role. Warner could no longer witness the breakthrough himself. He died the day before the film's New York world premiere in Los Angeles. The cause of death was pneumonia as a result of a serious infection, which was probably also due to an overhaul by Sam Warner. His brother Jack took over the management of the studio in Hollywood from then on. Sam Warner was married to actress Lina Basquette since 1925 and had a one-year-old daughter.

Web links

• Sam Warner in the Internet Movie Database (English)