Sam Jaffe (producer)

Sam Jaffe (May 21, 1901 – January 10, 2000)<ref name=NYTObit>Template:Cite news</ref> was, at different points in his career in the motion picture industry, an agent, a producer, and a studio executive.

Biography

Jaffe was born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants<ref name=SunSentObit>Sun Sentinel: "Sam Jaffe, Movie Talent Agent, 98" January 15, 2000</ref> Hannah and Max Jaffe. He had three older siblings: Joseph, David, and Adeline. He was raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.<ref name=JewishWomensArchAdeline>Jewish Women's Archives: "Adeline Schulberg 1895 – 1977" retrieved September 24, 2015</ref>

After dropping out of DeWitt Clinton High School, he took a job as an office boy for the Famous Players–Lasky Corporation where his brother-in-law, B. P. Schulberg, was an executive.<ref name=NYTObit /> He eventually worked his way up through the ranks to become the executive in charge of production<ref name=SunSentObit /> including films directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg, and Rouben Mamoulian.<ref name="NYTObit" /> In 1932, he was released from Paramount over internal politics.<ref>Baxter, John Von Sternberg P 150 | Template:ISBN |University Press of Kentucky | September 2010</ref>

He worked briefly for Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures<ref name="NYTObit" /> before joining the Schulberg-Feldman agency, co-founded by his older sister Adeline Schulberg with Charles K. Feldman.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1933, his sister left the firm to form the Ad Schulberg agency after her divorce from B.P. Schulberg; the firm represented such top actors as Marlene Dietrich, Fredric March, and Herbert Marshall before she sold it and moved to London.<ref name=JewishWomensArchAdeline />

In 1935, Jaffe opened his own talent agency named the Jaffe Agency.<ref name=LATimesObit>Los Angeles Times: "Sam Jaffe; Pioneer Movie Producer, Manager, Agent" by Myrna Olver January 14, 2000</ref><ref name=NYTObit /> While running the agency, he convinced 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck to let him produce The Fighting Sullivans in 1944.<ref name=NYTObit /> He successfully represented several stars and directors of the era, including Humphrey Bogart, Fritz Lang, Raoul Walsh, Stanley Kubrick,<ref name=NYTObit /> Lauren Bacall, David Niven, Zero Mostel, Richard Burton, Mary Astor, Barbara Stanwyck, Lee J. Cobb, and Jennifer Jones.<ref name=SunSentObit /> In the late 1940s, his business was negatively affected by the investigations of many of his clients by the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations into Hollywood.<ref name=NYTObit /> In 1949, he sold the Jaffe Agency to his brother-in-law, Phil Gersh, who had been working with him.<ref name=NYTGershObit>New York Times: "Phil Gersh, a Leading Agent In Hollywood, Is Dead at 92" By BERNARD WEINRAUB May 12, 2004</ref>

In 1959, Jaffe retired and moved to London.<ref name=SunSentObit /> There he produced several films, including Born Free (1966) and Theater of Blood (1973).<ref name=NYTObit /> In 1985, he returned to Los Angeles<ref name=SunSentObit /> and became a collector of modern art. He died in 2000 at age 98

Personal life

Jaffe was married to Mildred Gersh, also from New York. One of her younger brothers was Phil Gersh, who moved from New York to Los Angeles and became a Hollywood agent. After working with Jaffe, Gersh purchased the Jaffe Agency in 1949. He renamed it in the 1960s as The Gersh Agency.<ref name=NYTGershObit />

Sam and Mildred Jaffe had three daughters: Naomi Jaffe Carroll, Barbara Jaffe Kohn, and Judith Jaffe Tolmach Silber.<ref name=NYTObit />

Partial filmography

• Theater of Blood (1973)
• Born Free (1966)
• Damian and Pythias (1962)
• The Fighting Sullivans (1944)
• Diplomaniacs (1933)
• The Vanishing Frontier (1932)

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0415489

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