Jack M. Warner

Jack Milton Warner (March 27, 1916 – April 1, 1995) was an American film producer and son of legendary Hollywood movie mogul Jack L. Warner.

Jack M. Warner
BornMarch 27, 1916
DiedApril 1, 1995(1995-04-01) (aged 79)
Alma materUniversity of Southern California
OccupationFilm producer
Spouse(s)Barbara Richman
(m. 1948, div. 1972)
Children3
Parent(s)

Early life

Jack M. Warner was born on March 27, 1916, the only child of Irma C. (née Salomon) and Jack L. Warner (1892–1978).[1][2][3] His father co-founded the film studio Warner Bros. with his brothers Harry Warner (1881–1958), Albert Warner (1884–1967), and Sam Warner (1887–1927).[2][4] According to the federal census of 1930, Jack—then 14 years old—lived with his mother and father in "Beverly Hills City", California, along with five live-in servants, who performed the daily duties of butler, housekeeper, cook, "Ladies Maid", and chauffeur.[1] His family was Jewish.

Career

After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1938, Warner worked at Warner Bros.'s Burbank studio in the company's short-subject department.[5] His experience in that position was later applied during his military service in World War II, when he helped to produce training films for the United States Army.[5] Following the war he returned to Warner Bros., joined its distribution company, and later became a producer.[2] Among the early films he produced were The Hasty Heart (1949), starring Richard Todd and Ronald Reagan, The Admiral Was a Lady, and The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) starring Lee J. Cobb and Jane Wyatt.[2] Warner had also been in charge of Sunset Productions, a television production and licensing subsidiary of Warner Bros.[6]

In 1958 Warner was dismissed from his position at Warner Bros. by his father.[2] The two had become estranged after the elder Warner divorced his first wife Irma, Jack's mother, in 1935.[2] Jack was never reconciled to his father's new wife Ann Page.[7] The son learned only through announcements in the film industry's trade press that he had lost his job.[2] He later wrote a novel Bijou Dream based loosely on his relationship with his father, who died in 1978.[2]

Jack M. Warner in 1957 appeared as a contestant on You Bet Your Life, a televised quiz show hosted by Groucho Marx.[8] Warner at the time served as president of the Mental Health Foundation of Los Angeles County, California; and he competed on the quiz show to win money, which he intended to contribute to the foundation.[8] Although Warner did not win the "big money" on the show, he did win $250.[8]

Personal life and death

Warner married Connecticut native Barbara Richman in 1948. Together, they had three children (Jimmy, Betsy and Debbie) and eight grandchildren (Richard, Selena, Semantha, Victor, Kenneth, Nicole, Sebastian and Nicholas).[2] Warner died of cancer of the lymph nodes on April 1, 1995, at age 79 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.[2] His body was interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.[9] His wife Barbara died in Rancho Mirage, California, in 2016.[9]

References and notes
  1. "Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930", enumeration date April 23, 1930, "Beverly Hills City", Los Angeles County, California. Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. Digital copy of original census page available at FamilySearch, a free online database, archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  2. "Jack M. Warner, Film Producer, 79", obituary, The New York Times, April 6, 1995
  3. Slight variations in the spelling of Irma Warner's maiden name can be found in different sources; however, Jack M. Warner's birth record in "The California Birth Index, 1905-1995" lists the spelling of his mother's name as "Salomon". Content of original record in the Vital Statistics Department of the California Department of Health Services in Sacramento, California, is available at FamilySearch. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  4. Warner-Sperling, Cass; Millner, Cork; Warner, Jack; Warner, Jack Jr. Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story. University Press of Kentucky. p. 338. ISBN 0-8131-0958-2.
  5. "Jack M. Warner", obituary, SFGate, April 3, 1995, San Francisco, California. SFGate is the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle, a subsidiary of Hearst Communications, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  6. "Trio of Majors Accelerate Television Plans". The Independent Film Journal. April 16, 1955.
  7. Jack M. Warner's stepmother Ann Page (1908–1990) was a former actress also known as Ann Boyar, and she was the child of Russian Jewish immigrants. She already had a daughter, Joy, when she married Jack L. Warner in 1935, although she and Warner later had a daughter of their own, Barbara, who was Jack M. Warner's stepsister. "Jack L. Warner: Biography", Internet Movie Database (IMDb), a subsidiary of Amazon, Seattle, Washington. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  8. "You Bet Your Life #57-02 Jack Warner, Jr.; Lena & Mercedes", originally broadcast on October 3, 1957. Video of full episode available on YouTube, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc., Mountain View, California. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  9. Hanzel, F. J. (2016). "Jack Milton Warner, Jr.", Find a Grave online memorial 157445089 with photograph and biographical profile; online memorial created January 25, 2016. Find a Grave is a subsidiary of Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah. Retrieved August 7. 2017.
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