Harry Saltzman

Born in Canada, Harry Saltzman was raised in the United States, where he began his film production career in the 1940s. After several years in American and British television, Saltzman joined the Big Leagues in 1959, when, without a dime to his name, he offered to finance Woodfall Films, a British production company formed by playwright John Osborne and director Tony Richardson. Fortunately for everyone concerned, Saltzman never had to endure the humiliation of having the banks call in their loans: Woodfall's first two features, the "angry young man" dramas Look Back in Anger (1959) and The Entertainer (1960), were huge moneymakers. In later years, Woodfall partner Tony Richardson summed up Saltzman thusly: "He had the perfect mogul's figure--stocky, tubby, crinkly grey hair and the face of an eager coarse cherub." Moving on to form Eon Productions with producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli in 1962, Saltzman bankrolled an inexpensive espionage thriller titled Dr. No. Thus was launched the James Bond series, one of the most financially successful group of films in motion picture history. Flying solo in 1965, Saltzman launched a second spy series with his cinemadaptation of Len Deighton's The Ipcress File. Harry Saltzman dissolved his partnership with Broccoli after the 1974 James Bond opus The Man With the Golden Gun; he produced one more film on his own, Nijinsky (1980), then retired after suffering a stroke at the age of 65.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide