About Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director and producer. During the 1930s, he was one of the two great practitioners of economical and effective film directing at Warner Brothers studios, the other being his colleague Michael Curtiz. LeRoy's most acclaimed films of his tenure at Warners include Little Caesar (1931), I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Anthony Adverse (1936), and They Won't Forget (1937). LeRoy left Warners and moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1939 to serve as both director and producer. He is best known for producing the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, as well as for directing the 1951 Oscar-nominated film Quo Vadis. In 1915, he won a competition that hosted almost a thousand Chaplin imitators at the Pantages Theater. LeRoy described his relatives as "San Franciscans first, Americans second, Jews third." LeRoy's mother was a frequent attendee at San Francisco's premier vaudeville venues, the Orpheum and the Alcazar, often socializing with the theater's personnel.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.