Irving G. Thalberg

Irving G. Thalberg (1899–1936), American motion-picture executive, who helped build Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) into one of the biggest Hollywood studios. Irving Grant Thalberg was born in Brooklyn, New York. In 1918 he began work as assistant to Carl Laemmle, president of Universal Pictures Corporation in New York City. At the age of 20 Thalberg became head of production at Universal Pictures, and shortly thereafter, in 1924, he became production supervisor of MGM, which had just been formed in Hollywood, California. Thalberg was responsible for the high artistic quality of such films as Ben-Hur (1926) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).

Thalberg, whose mentor was Louis B. Mayer, became known as the boy wonder of Hollywood. He discovered and developed many MGM film stars, and his most memorable productions include Grand Hotel (1932) and A Night at the Opera (1935). Thalberg’s career was brief; he died from pneumonia at age 37. In 1937 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences established the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, to be presented to a producer whose work exhibits “consistently high levels of production achievement.” Winners of the award have included Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, and Steven Spielberg.