Ben Thau
| Benny Thau | |
|---|---|
Benny Thau in 1954
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| Born |
Benjamin Thau 15 December 1898 |
| Died | 5 July 1983 (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | MGM Casting Director |
Benny Thau (born Benjamin Thau, 15 December 1898 – 5 July 1983) was an American businessman who became vice-president of the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of the Loew's theater chain. From 1928 he was in charge of casting, in the business of discovering and developing talented performers. He was known for his quiet and calming influence with often temperamental stars. Towards the end of his career he was studio boss for a short period.
Born to a Jewish family, Thau started his career as a vaudeville booking agent for Loew's. In 1928 he was hired by Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, as casting director. Thau had a pleasant nature and was regarded with affection by many of the workers at MGM, but wielded considerable power. Thau belonged to Mayer's executive team, called "the college of cardinals", along with Eddie Mannix, Lawrence Weingarten and Hunt Stromberg. Thau managed the pool of talent, called by the publicity department "more stars than there are in heaven."
In 1938 Thau, along with other executives, agreed to produce a film version of Erich Maria Remarque's classic novel Three Comrades, but watered down the script to avoid anything that could offend Germany's Nazi government.
George Sidney described Thau as "a very quiet man, a gentle man." He would be brought in to calm down the performers when they got upset. He said, "Benny spoke very quietly. You could almost never quite hear what he said. But he would talk to this one and that one and had the ability to calm things down. A Vanity Fair article by Bob Colacello described Thau in 1949 as a "short, heavyset man with thinning hair", and quoted the biographer Charles Higham as saying "Thau's casting couch was the busiest in Hollywood".
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