Robert Z. Leonard Biography, Life, Interesting Facts

Childhood And Early Life

American actor, film producer, and director Robert Zigler Leonard was born on the 7 October 1889 in Chicago, Illinois.

Education

Robert Z. Leonard studied law at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Rise To Stardom

Robert Z. Leonard started out as an actor with the Selig Polyscope Company in Los Angeles in 1907. The first film he directed was A Friend of the Family (1913).

Career

Robert Z. Leonard subsequently went on to direct over a hundred films including Circe the Enchantress (1923), Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise (1930), Dancing Lady (1932), A Tale of Two Cities (1934) The Clown (1952), The Great Diamond Robbery (1953), Her Twelve Man (1954) and The King’s Thief (1955). Leonard’s last film Beautiful But Dangerous, which he produced and directed, was made for 20th Century Fox in 1955.

Awards And Achievements

In 1930 Robert Z. Leonard was nominated for the Academy Award Best Director Oscar for The Divorcee (1930) and again in 1937 for The Great Ziegfeld (1936). The Great Ziegfeld was also nominated for the Mussolini Cup Best Foreign award at the Venice Film Festival in 1936.

Robert Z. Leonard has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal Life

His first wife was Mae Murray, and they were married from 1918 until they divorced in 1925. He then married Gertrude Olmstead in 1926-1968. Both Leonard’s wives were actresses who appeared in his films.

Robert Z. Leonard died in Beverly Hills, California on the 27 August 1968 as the result of an aneurysm.