Paul Kohner

Paul Kohner (May 29, 1902 – March 16, 1988) was an Austrian-American talent agent and producer who managed the careers of Ingrid Bergman, Maurice Chevalier, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, John Huston, Liv Ullmann and Billy Wilder, as well as actors who came from Europe before World War II.

Early life Kohner was born to a Jewish family in Teplitz-Schönau, Austria-Hungary (now Teplice, Czech Republic). His father was Julius "Kino" Kohner, who managed the local movie theater and published a film industry newspaper, and his mother was Helene Kohner (née Beamt). He had two brothers, Friedrich "Frederick" Kohner, a film and TV writer who created the character Gidget (based on his daughter, Kathy), and Walter Kohner, a Hollywood agent whose wife, Hanna Kohner, in May 1953, was the first non-celebrity featured on This Is Your Life, the television show, where she was the first Holocaust survivor to talk about her experiences in concentration and death camps on television.

Career

Producer As a young man, Kohner worked as a news reporter at his father's magazine Internationale Filmschau, which focused on the film industry. He met Carl Laemmle during an interview in Karlovy Vary in 1920. Laemmle was impressed by 18-year old Kohner and offered him a job. Kohner decided to move to the United States. Kohner started out as an office errand boy at Laemmle's company, Universal Pictures, in New York. There, he became friends with another young émigré working for Universal, William Wyler. He moved to Hollywood and worked his way up the studio system, working in positions at Universal like unit production supervisor as well as casting director. Because of his knowledge of film production and background in Germany, Kohner went on to head Universal Pictures' European production offices located in Berlin, Germany in the late 1920s. He worked as a producer, responsible for shepherding many Universal Pictures films like the Lon Chaney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, William Wyler's A House Divided that starred Walter Huston, among others. The company was in business from 1935 to 1988.

European Film Fund

In 1938, Kohner co-founded the European Film Fund with Ernst Lubitsch, and Universal Pictures studio head, Carl Laemmle. From 1938 to 1948, during World War II, the Fund worked in an effort to provide assistance to émigrés trying to relocate to America. When Kohner died, he still had love letters Philbin had written to him in his possession. She had also kept his. Kohner and actress Lupita Tovar were married in Czechoslovakia on October 30, 1932, at Kohner's parents' home by a rabbi.

In 1936, the couple had a daughter, Susan Kohner, a film and television actress, and, in 1939, a son, Paul Julius "Pancho" Kohner Jr., later a director and producer. The family lived for many years in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, near filmmaker Alexander Korda. Their grandsons, Chris and Paul Weitz, are successful film directors. Kohner spoke six languages.

Filmography 1927: Surrender (Universal) – Supervisor 1927: The Cat and the Canary (Universal) – Supervising producer (uncredited) 1927: Love Me and the World Is Mine (Universal) (based on the book The Affairs of Hannerl) – Supervising producer; Writer, scenario 1927: A Man's Past (Universal) – Supervising producer (uncredited); Writer, adaptation 1928: The Man Who Laughs (Universal) – Production supervisor 1929: The Brandenburg Arch (Deutsche Universal-Film) – Producer 1929: Rustle of Spring German: Frühlingsrauschen (Deutsche Universal-Film) – Producer 1929: White Hell of Pitz Palu (Universal) (1930 sound film version in English, released by Universal internationally) – Associate producer 1929: Die seltsame Vergangenheit der Thea Carter (English title: The Unusual Past of Thea Carter) (Deutsche Universal-Film) – producer 1930: Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern (Deutsche Universal-Film) (English title: Ludwig II, King of Bavaria) – Producer 1930: La Voluntad del muerto (Universal) (Spanish language version of The Cat Creeps) – Producer 1930: Oriente es Occidente (Universal) (Spanish language version of East Is West) – Producer 1931: Don Juan Diplomático (Universal) (Spanish language version of the English and French films, The Boudoir Diplomat and Boudoir Diplomatique) – Production supervisor 1931: Liebe auf Befehl (Universal) (German language version of the English and French films, The Boudoir Diplomat and Boudoir Diplomatique) – Production manager 1931: Resurrección (Mexican) (Spanish language version of A Woman's Resurrection) – Production supervisor 1931: El Tenorio del Harem (Universal) (Spanish language version of Arabian Knights) – Production supervisor 1931: Drácula (Universal) (Spanish language version of Dracula) – Associate producer 1931: East of Borneo (Universal) – Associate producer 1931: A House Divided (Universal) – Associate producer 1932: Doomed Battalion (Universal) – Associate producer 1932: Der Rebell (Deutsche Universal-Film) (German language version of The Rebel) – Producer 1933: The Rebel (Deutsche Universal-Film) – Producer 1933: S.O.S. Eisberg (Deutsche Universal-Film) (German language version of S.O.S. Iceberg) – Associate producer 1933: S.O.S. Iceberg (Universal Pictures) – Associate producer 1934: Der Verlorene Sohn (Deutsche Universal-Film) (English title: The Prodigal Son) – Producer 1935: Alas sobre El Chaco (Universal) (Spanish language version of Storm Over the Andes) – Producer 1935: East of Java (Universal) – Producer 1936: Next Time We Love (Universal) – Producer 1978: Erich von Stroheim – Der Mann mit dem bösen Blick (TV movie) – Participation 1986: Fast ein Jahrhundert – Luis Trenker – Participation 1989: Wer war Arnold Fanck? – Participation