- Charles K. Feldman
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Charles K. Feldman (April 26, 1904 - May 25, 1968) was a film producer and talent agent born in New York City. In 1934 he married actress Jean Howard, whom he divorced in 1948. He managed the careers of Howard Hawks, John Wayne, George Stevens, Claudette Colbert, Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall and many others.
Feldman pioneered the use of overlapping nonexclusive contracts with clients like Irene Dunne and Claudette Colbert, demonstrating flexible alternatives to the so called iron-clad studio contract in the classical Hollywood era. One of the most powerful agents in Hollywood at the time, Feldman also won percentages of the film's profits for his clients. Feldman also held considerable sway in the making of some films, it was Feldman who suggested to Jack Warner (as a friend) that he recut Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep and add scenes to enchance Bacall's performance, which he felt was more-or-less a 'bit part' in the 1945 cut.
Among some of Feldman's more notable films: the Orson Welles Macbeth (1948), The Glass Menagerie (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) which was nominated for an Academy Award, The Seven Year Itch (1955), What's New, Pussycat? (1965), The Group (1966), The Honey Pot (1967), and the satirical James Bond film adaptation Casino Royale (1967).
On his passing in 1968, Charles K. Feldman was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.
External links
Categories:- 1904 births
- 1968 deaths
- American talent agents
- People from New York City
- American film producers
- Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
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