Mitchell Leisen

Mitchell Leisen (b. October 6, 1898, Menominee, Michigan – d. October 28, 1972, Los Angeles) was an American director, art director, and costume designer. He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments.

He garnered his sole Academy Award nomination in 1930, for Art Direction, for Cecil B. DeMille's Dynamite. He directed his first film in 1933 and became known for his keen sense for aesthetics and glossy Hollywood melodramas and screwball comedies.

His best known films include the Alberto Casella adaptation Death Takes a Holiday (1934), as well as Midnight (1939) and Hold Back the Dawn (1941), both scripted by Billy Wilder. Easy Living (1937), starring Jean Arthur was another hit for the director, was written by Preston Sturges. His comedy The Mating Season was produced by Charles Brackett and written by Charles Brackett, Richard Breen and Walter Reisch based on the play Maggie by Caesar Dunn (1951), starring Gene Tierney, John Lund, Miriam Hopkins, and Thelma Ritter, was an updated version of his earlier screwball comedies of the 1930s. The Mating Season was his last big movie success.

Later in his career, he directed episodes of The Twilight Zone and Shirley Temple's Storybook.

Though married, Leisen was reported to be gay.^[1] He died of heart disease in 1972, aged 74.

[edit] Selected filmography

^ Barrios, Richard (2005). Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood From Edison To Stonewall. Routledge, 157. ISBN 041592328X.

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