Paul Bern

Paul Bern (December 3, 1889 – September 5, 1932) was a German-American film director, screenwriter and producer for MGM. He was born Paul Levy to a Jewish family in Wandsbek, which was then a town in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein (now a district of the city of Hamburg). He came to the United States as a small boy, and spent his impoverished childhood in New York. Slight of build and somewhat unattractive, he nonetheless pursued a ca... more

Paul Bern (December 3, 1889 – September 5, 1932) was a German-American film director, screenwriter and producer for MGM. He was born Paul Levy to a Jewish family in Wandsbek, which was then a town in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein (now a district of the city of Hamburg). He came to the United States as a small boy, and spent his impoverished childhood in New York. Slight of build and somewhat unattractive, he nonetheless pursued a career in acting on the stage, then moved toward the non-acting aspects of theater. Eventually he moved to Hollywood and worked as a writer and director for some of the smaller film companies. This led to his working full-time as a producer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the biggest studio of all. The all-star film Grand Hotel won the Best Picture Academy Award for 1931–32. Bern and Irving Thalberg produced the film, although neither was credited (in the early 1930s MGM did not list their films' producers in their credits). However the award was... less