Mitchell Leisen
Born	James Mitchell Leisen (1898-10-06)October 6, 1898 Menominee, Michigan, U.S.
Died	October 28, 1972(1972-10-28) (aged 74) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Director,art director,costume designer,producer
Years active	1920–1967
Spouse	Sandra Gahle

James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an Americandirector,art director, andcostume designer.

He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments. He directed his first film in 1933 withCradle Song and became known for his keen sense of aesthetics in the glossy Hollywoodmelodramas andscrewball comedies he turned out.^{[citation needed]}

His best known films include Alberto Casella's adaptation ofDeath Takes a Holiday andMurder at the Vanities, a musical mystery story (both 1934), as well asMidnight (1939) andHold Back the Dawn (1941), both scripted byBilly Wilder.Easy Living (1937), written byPreston Sturges and starringJean Arthur, was another hit for the director, who also directedRemember the Night (1940), the last film written by Sturges before he started directing his scripts as well.^{[citation needed]}

Lady in the Dark (1944),To Each His Own (1946), andNo Man of Her Own (1950) were later successes.Charles Brackett's comedyThe Mating Season (1951) starringGene Tierney,Miriam Hopkins andThelma Ritter was an updated version of Leisen's earlierscrewball comedies of the 1930s, and was also his last big movie success.^{[citation needed]}

When his film career ended, Leisen directed episodes of such television series asThriller,Shirley Temple's Storybook,The Twilight Zone, andThe Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. He later became a nightclub owner.^[1]

Though married, Leisen was reported to be gay or bisexual. According to Carolyn Roos, Leisen's longtime business manager's daughter, he had a very long relationship with dancer/actor/choreographer Billy Daniel until the 1950s (Daniel died in 1962).^[2][3] Leisen, with Daniel and dancer/actorMary Parker, formed Hollywood Presents Inc. as a means of promoting both Daniel and Parker off-screen.^[4] Leisen died of heart disease in 1972, aged 74. His grave is located inChapel of the Pines Crematory.^[5]

He garnered his sole Academy Award nomination in 1930 forArt Direction forCecil B. DeMille'sDynamite.^[6] He directedHold Back the Dawn (1941), which was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Picture.^{[citation needed]}

• Chierichetti, David (1995).Mitchell Leisen: Hollywood Director. Photoventures.ISBN 978-0-929330-04-4. Revised version of a 1973 biography.
• Kehr, Dave (May 13, 2008)."New DVDs: Mitchell Leisen and 'The Big Trail'".The New York Times.The very model of the crack studio director, Mitchell Leisen spent much of his career atParamount, where he tackled projects as radically different as the archly theatrical "Death Takes a Holiday" (1934) and the frothy revue film "The Big Broadcast of 1938" with the same composure and elegance. Kehr's review of the DVD releases ofEasy Living (1937) andMidnight (1939).
• Melville, David (2006)."Mitchell Leisen".Senses of Cinema (37). Melville is one of several critics who have been reassessing Leisen's contributions to cinema; he writes, "Leisen, glimpsed in this new light, is no longer a swishy hack. He's a subtle and stylish auteur who could add heart and humanity to the brittle sophistication of Billy Wilder, lend grace and elegance to the boisterous Americana of Preston Sturges. In hisBiographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson hails Leisen as "an expert at witty romantic comedies, too reliant on feeling to be screwball, too pleased with glamour to be satires – and thus less likely to attract critical attention.""
• Rappaport, Mark (2008)."Mitchell Leisen".Rouge. This essay was written as an introduction to a retrospective series of showings of Leisen's films in 2008 at theCinémathèque Française in Paris, France. As does Melville, Rappaport speculates on how some ofBilly Wilder's andPreston Sturges' scripts that Leisen directed would have fared if their writers had directed them instead.
• Shadoian, Jack (September 1, 1998)."Exacting standards: Director Mitchell Leisen's film "To Each His Own" epitomizes the director's work".Film Comment.34 (5): 40. RetrievedFebruary 3, 2011.Seeing Leisen's films, though, kindles the urge to get up in arms, hoist a banner or two in the hope of securing the director his rightful share of the limelight. Segue toTo Each His Own, a quintessential Leisen weepie – what one could unkindly call glittery trash created by the best minds of the motion picture industry, but that just might be wonder-full enough to do the job. Shadoian is a film scholar who wrote the monographDreams and Dead Ends: The American Gangster Film (1978, 2003).

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMitchell Leisen.

• Mitchell Leisen atIMDb

• 1898 births
• 1972 deaths
• People from Menominee, Michigan
• American art directors
• Film producers from Michigan
• American costume designers
• Burials at Chapel of the Pines Crematory
• American LGBTQ film directors
• LGBTQ people from Michigan
• Film directors from Michigan
• 20th-century American LGBTQ people

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