Anatole de Grunwald

Anatole "Tolly" de Grunwald (25 December 1910 – 13 January 1967) was a Russian British film producer and screenwriter.

Biography

De Grunwald was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the son of a diplomat (Constantin de Grunwald) in the service of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. He was seven years old when his father was forced to flee with his family to France during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. He grew up in France and England, studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he edited a student magazine, The Europa, and attended the University of Paris (Sorbonne). He started his career in films by reading scripts for Gaumont-British. He then turned to screenwriting in 1939 for the British film industry and eventually became a producer.

He was appointed managing director of Two Cities Films, and later formed his own production company with his brother, Dimitri de Grunwald in 1946. De Grunwald contributed to the scripts of many of his productions, including The Winslow Boy (1948) and The Holly and the Ivy (1952). Most of his films were British productions, although in the 1960s, invited by MGM, he went to the United States where he produced several films, then returned to England for the remainder of his career. Anatole de Grunwald's final films included The V.I.P.s (1963) and The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965). He worked in close collaboration with the director Anthony Asquith and the dramatist Terence Rattigan, with whom he made many films.

Anatole de Grunwald died in London.

Filmography

Pygmalion— 1938 (uncredited screenwriter) Discoveries — 1938 (screenwriter) French Without Tears – 1939 (as co-screenwriter with Terence Rattigan, who was uncredited) Spy for a Day — 1940 (screenwriter) Major Barbara — 1941 (screenwriter) Pimpernel Smith — 1941 (screenwriter) Quiet Wedding – 1941 (as co-screenwriter with Rattigan) Jeannie — 1941 (screenwriter) Cottage to Let (aka Bombsight Stolen) — 1941 (screenwriter) Freedom Radio - 1941 (screenwriter) Penn of Pennsylvania — 1942 (screenwriter) The Day Will Dawn — 1942 (screenwriter) Unpublished Story — 1942 (screenwriter) The First of the Few – 1942 (as screenwriter) (in the USA known as "Spitfire") Secret Mission — 1942 (screenwriter) Tomorrow We Live (aka At Dawn We Die ) - 1943 (screenwriter) They Met in the Dark — 1943 (screenwriter) The Demi-Paradise – 1943 English Without Tears — 1944 (produced and co-screenwriter) The Way to the Stars – 1945 While the Sun Shines —1947 Bond Street — 1948 The Winslow Boy – 1948 (also as screenwriter) Now Barabbas — 1949 (screenwriter) The Last Days of Dolwyn — 1949 Golden Arrow — 1949 The Queen of Spades – 1949 Flesh and Blood — 1951 Home at Seven — 1952 (screenwriter) Treasure Hunt — 1952 The Holly and the Ivy – 1952 Women of Twilight — 1952 (screenplay) Innocents in Paris — 1953 The Doctor's Dilemma – 1958 Libel – 1959 (also as screenwriter) Come Fly with Me – 1962 I Thank a Fool – 1962 The V.I.P.s – 1963 The Yellow Rolls-Royce – 1964 Stranger in the House – 1967