Lawrence Weingarten

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BIRTHDAY

January 01, 1898

Chicago

DIED

February 05, 1975

RECENT CREDITS

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (FILM) Jun. 1, 1964

Period of Adjustment (FILM) Jan. 1, 1962

The Honeymoon Machine (FILM) Aug. 1, 1961

Ada (FILM) Jun. 16, 1961

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (FILM) Jan. 1, 1958

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BIOGRAPHY

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According to Who Was Who in Hollywood, Lawrence Weingarten acted in the 1916 silent film Bittersweet. If so, the experience must have been daunting enough for Weingarten to spend the remainder of his long career in the production end of the business. Working as a studio publicist in the post-World War I years, Weingarten joined the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1924. He served as an assistant and associate producer under MGM's "boy wonder" Irving Thalberg, graduating to production supervisor of the studio's comedies and musicals in 1929. Coincidentally, he also married Thalberg's sister Sylvia during this period. Adept at overseeing such musicals as the Oscar-winning Broadway Melody (1929), Weingarten seemed uncomfortable around comedians, especially those who, like Buster Keaton and The Marx Brothers, neither needed nor wanted a studio functionary around to tell them what to do. On the other hand, his 1949 Tracy-Hepburn vehicle Adam's Rib was among the funniest pictures ever put out by the studio. On occasion, Weingarten turned out a praiseworthy drama, of which Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is an excellent example. Lawrence Weingarten's last MGM production was 1968's The Impossible Years, co-written by Arthur Marx, whose father Groucho had starred in the Weingarten-produced A Day at the Races (1937).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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