On this day, in 1879, Samuel Goldwyn, film producer creator of the Paramount and Goldwyn Picture future Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was born in Warsaw.

Film producer Samuel Goldwyn, on page 32 of the July 19, 1919 *Exhibitors Herald* – Wikimedia

Samuel Goldwyn, real name Szmul Gelbfisz, (he changed his name two times to Samuel Goldfish and finally Samuel Goldwyn) was born on this day, August 17th, 1879, in Warsaw on Nalewki Street. This street, which today no longer exists, was destroyed following the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.

After leaving Warsaw following the death of his father in 1894, he settled in Hamburg in 1895, before moving to the United Kingdom in 1898 and then leaving in early 1899 to Canada and finally New York and was granted citizenship in 1902.

1916 publicity photo for the takeover of Paramount Pictures. (L to R) Jesse L. Lasky, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn, Cecil B. DeMille, Al Kaufman – wikimedia

In 1913, he created with his brother-in-law Jess L Lasky, Cecile B DeMille, and Arthur Friend the future multinational film company, the ‘Paramount’ before creating in 1916 the ‘Goldwyn Pictures’ which will become in 1924 ‘Metro-Golwyn-Mayer’.

From the trailer for *The Hurricane* (1937) – wikimedia

He died at the age of 94 in Los Angeles in 1974.

During his career, he produced over 140 movies, 48 received an Oscar.

Among his relatives, we can find:

Tony Goldwyn (grandson) – American actor who notably performed on Friday the 13th: Jason Lives (1986), Ghost as Carl Bruner, Harold Nixon in the biographical film ‘Nixon’ (1995), Neil Armstrong in the HBO miniseries ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ (1998), he voiced the main character of the Disney animated film Tarzan (1999), Colonel Bagley with Tom Cruise in ‘The Last Samurai’ (2003), ‘The Last House on the Left’ (2009), as Andrew Prior in the ‘Divergent’ film series (2014–2015) and many more.