Konstantin Kalser

Konstantin Kalser (4 September 1920 30 July 1994) was a German-American film producer and advertising executive. He won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film (then entitled "Best Short Subject, One-reel") in 1957 with Crashing the Water Barrier.

Early life Kalser was born in Munich on 4 September 1920, the son of actor Erwin Kalser and actress and screenwriter Irma von Cube. He was educated in Switzerland and at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kalser moved to the United States in 1937 to join his mother in the entertainment industry. During World War II, he served in the United States Air Force; post-war, he became a photographer for Life magazine.

Kalser produced several short films through Marathon during the 1950s and 1960s, the most prominent of which was the Oscar-winning Crashing the Water Barrier. the next year, the one- and two-reel awards (the latter held that year by The Bespoke Overcoat) would be merged into a single short film award. In 1966, Kalser admitted that Crashing the Water Barrier was produced by Marathon as an advertisement for an oil company. Kalser hoped the film would win another Academy Award.

Kalser died of kidney failure at the age of 73 on 30 July 1994. He was survived by his wife, Martha Kalser, two children, and two stepchildren. At the time, he was living in Amagansett, New York.