Nat Cohen

Nat Cohen (23 December 1905 – 10 February 1988) was a British film producer and executive. For over four decades he was one of the most significant figures in the British film industry, particularly in his capacity as head of Anglo-Amalgamated and EMI Films; he helped finance the first Carry On movies and early work of filmmakers such as Ken Loach, John Schlesinger, Alan Parker and David Puttnam. In the early 1970s while head of EMI Films he was called the most powerful man in the British film industry.

Cohen was the son of a kosher butcher from the east end of London who was president of the Jubilee Street synagogue. He was the only son with one elder sister. Cohen's parents had emigrated from Poland in the early 1900s and his father was a silent partner in a cinema in the east end. Cohen attended a local LOC school and then joined his father's business.

In 1932 Cohen bought a 650-seat cinema, the Savoy, in Teddington. Over three years he built up a circuit of three cinemas in London and four in the provinces. One of the cinemas was the Mile End Empire, where Cohen ran talent quests before the movies commenced; among the artists who featured were a young Tommy Trinder and Bernard Delfont.

Cohen then turned to distribution, starting with re-releases of Hal Roach comedies.

During World War II he distributed and exhibited military instruction films in England. His wife and daughter were sent to stay with his friend Sam Goldwyn.

With Stuart Levy he co-founded Cohen and Levy Films in 1945 which eventually became Anglo-Amalgamated. His first film was a £800 pound documentary called Horse and Country.

They started making half hour featurettes at a cost of £10,000 then movied into features.

His biggest success around this time was the Carry On series, which Cohen helped initiate in 1958.

For the company, he produced Peeping Tom and The Criminal (both 1960), the former now highly regarded was controversial at the time of its release. He greenlit some of the most important British films of the 1960s, including early feature films directed by John Schlesinger, John Boorman, and Ken Loach.

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