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Anatole Litvak (May 10, 1902 – December 15, 1974) was a Ukrainian-born international filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in a variety of countries and languages.

Early years

He was born Mikhail Anatol Litwak into a Jewish family in the city of Kiev in what was then part of the Russian Empire. As a teenager, he worked at a theater in St. Petersburg and took acting lessons at the State drama school. In the 1920s, he would go to Germany where he made films but as a Jew had to flee in the 1930s as a result of the Nazi regime. While living in England he made several successful films there and in France that brought a contract offer from a Hollywood studio.

Private life

In 1937, Litvak became the third husband of American actress Miriam Hopkins. Their short-lived marriage ended in divorce in 1939. He married a second time to costume designer Sophie Steur who worked on some of his films. They remained married until his death.

Career

Litvak served with the United States Army during World War II and joined with fellow director Frank Capra to make the "Why We Fight" film series. Because of Litvak's ability to speak the Russian, German and French languages, he played a key role as the head of the army's photography division responsible for documenting the U.S. D Day landing on Normandy. At the end of the war, he returned to filmmaking and remained active in Hollywood until the mid-1950s when he began filming in Europe. Most notable was his 1956 work shot in Paris titled Anastasia that starred Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner. The film was a fictitious imagining of the mystery surrounding the Grand Duchess Anastasia who had supposedly been murdered as a young woman, along with the rest of the Russian royal family in 1918. The film centred around the rumours that the young Grand Duchess had survived her assassination; in the 1990s, such rumours were proven to be false by the discovery of the royals' bodies. However, in the 1950s the movie enjoyed huge commercial success. Helen Hayes, the first Lady of the American Stage, played the Grand Duchess' grandmother, the Empress Marie Feodorovna.

Awards and nominations

In 1940, his film All This and Heaven Too was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1948 Litvak was nominated for an Academy Award for Directing for his film The Snake Pit. This film and his 1951 production of Decision Before Dawn were both nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1961, at the Cannes Film Festival his Goodbye Again was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

Anatole Litvak died in 1974 in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6633 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

• Dolly macht Karriere (1930)
• Nie wieder Liebe (1931)
• Coeur de lilas (1932)
• Sleeping Car (1933)
• L'Équipage (1935)
• Mayerling (1936)
• The Woman I Love (1937)
• Tovarich (1937)
• Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
• The Sisters (1938)
• The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
• Castle on the Hudson (1940)
• City for Conquest (1940)
• All This and Heaven Too (1940)
• Out of the Fog (1941)
• Blues in the Night (1941)
• This Above All (1942)
• The Long Night (1947)
• Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
• The Snake Pit (1948)
• Decision Before Dawn (1951)
• Anastasia (1956)
• The Journey (1959)
• Goodbye Again (1961)
• Five Miles to Midnight (1962)
• The Night of the Generals (1967)
• The Lady in the Car With Glasses and a Gun (1970)

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