Mervyn LeRoy

Mervyn LeRoy (October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director, producer and sometime actor. Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake. (His paternal grandfather owned a successful San Francisco department store that was destroyed in the quake; the store was heavily insured, but the insurance company went bankrupt in the aftermath of the earthquake.) To make money, young Mervyn sold newspapers and entered talent shows as a singer. Through this he worked his way into vaudeville. When his act broke up, he and his cousin, Jesse Lasky, went to Hollywood. LeRoy worked in costumes, processing labs and as a camera assistant until he became a gag writer and...