Samuel Bronston

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Samuel Bronston ( Russian Шмил (Самуил) Бронштейн , Schmul (Samuil) Bronschtein , born March 26, 1908 in Chișinău , Bessarabia Governorate , Russian Empire (now Moldova ); † January 12, 1994 in Sacramento , California ) was an American film producer Bronston's urn was buried on the "Cementerio Municipal" of the Madrid suburb of "Las Rozas". There is also a street named after him there. His daughter Andrea Bronston is a well-known singer in Spain.

Life

Bronston was a nephew of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and studied at the Sorbonne . He worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's French office in Paris before starting his own production company, Samuel Bronston Productions , whose first film was Jack London in 1943 . Bronston made a name for himself with adventure flicks and monumental films such as Ruler of the Seas (1959), King of Kings (1961), El Cid (1961), 55 Days in Beijing (1963) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964).

Bronston was the first Hollywood producer to shoot big screen epics in Spain to cut costs. Encouraged by his box office successes, he had huge studios built in Las Rozas near Madrid . The immense cost of building these facilities and the financial failure of his last monumental film The Fall of the Roman Empire led to the end of Samuel Bronston Productions in 1964 . Bronston was able to produce four more films, but was mostly preoccupied with bankruptcy suits and took over twenty years to pay off his million dollar debt.

In 1962 Bronston received an honorary Golden Globe for El Cid .

Bronston is buried in Alicante , Spain .

Filmography

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bronston, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bronschtein, Samuil; Bronschtein, Schmul; Бронштейн, Шмил; Бронштейн, Самуил
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film producer
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Chișinău , Bessarabia Governorate , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1994
Place of death Sacramento , California, USA