Pandro S. Berman

Pandro S. Berman was born into the film industry. His father, Harry, was distributor and exhibitor of films. Pandro also had a number of relatives in the film industry. When he started working in the 1920's he started as a script clerk and then rose to film editor. By 1931, the 26 year old Berman was an assistant director at RKO when Selznick took over the floundering studio. Selznick fired many people at RKO, but he saw something in Berman and made him his assistant. Pandro was a success and brought to the screen many stars and great films. It was he who paired Rogers with Astaire; and made Katherine Hepburn a star. He was considered to be the Irving Thalberg of RKO and produced many prestige pictures over the years. In 1940, after a power struggle, he moved to Culver City and MGM where he continued to produce well received movies. He survived many of the purges and finally left MGM for independant work in 1963. His final film was 'MOVE' made in 1970. In 1977, he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards.