Victor Fleming
Encyclopedia
Victor Lonzo Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

, and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

(1939), and Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

(1939), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.

Life and career

Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen (née Hartman) and William Alonzo "Lon" Fleming, who worked in the water industry in Pasadena. His mother was of part German descent. Fleming served in the photographic section during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and acted as chief photographer for President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

 in Versailles, France. He showed a mechanical aptitude early in life; while working as a car mechanic he met the director Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:...

, who took him on as a camera assistant. Fleming soon rose to the rank of cinematographer, working with both Dwan and D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...

, and directed his first film in 1919.

Many of Fleming's silent films were action movies, often starring Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....

, or Westerns, and with his robust attitude and love of outdoor sports he became known as a "man's director". But he also proved an effective director of women. Under his direction, Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...

 won the Best Actress Oscar
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

, Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....

 won for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

, and Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...

 was nominated.

MGM

In 1932 Fleming joined MGM and directed some of the studio's most prestigious films. Red Dust
Red Dust
Red Dust is an American 1932 romantic drama film directed by Victor Fleming. The picture is the second of six movies Clark Gable and Jean Harlow made together and was produced during the Pre-Code era of Hollywood...

(1932), Bombshell
Bombshell (film)
Bombshell is a Pre-Code film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, C. Aubrey Smith, Mary Forbes and Franchot Tone.-Plot:...

(1933), and Reckless
Reckless (1935 film)
Reckless is a 1935 American musical film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Jean Harlow, William Powell and Franchot Tone. The story was based on the scandal of the 1931 marriage between torch singer Libby Holman and tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds and his subsequent alleged...

(1935) showcased Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...

, while Treasure Island
Treasure Island (1934 film)
Treasure Island is a 1934 movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel Treasure Island. Jim Hawkins discovers a treasure map and travels on a sailing ship to a remote island, but pirates led by Long John Silver threaten to take away the honest seafarers’ riches and...

(1934) and Captains Courageous (1937) brought a touch of literary distinction to boy's-own
Boy's Own Paper
The Boy's Own Paper was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967.-Publishing history:The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society as a means to encourage younger children to read and also instil Christian morals...

 adventure stories. His two most famous films came in 1939, when The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

was closely followed by Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

.

Fleming's version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Rather than being a new film version of the novel, it is a direct remake of the 1931 film of the same name, which differs greatly from the novel. The movie was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's...

(1941), with Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

, was generally rated below Rouben Mamoulian
Rouben Mamoulian
Rouben Mamoulian was an Armenian-American film and theatre director.-Biography:Born in Tbilisi, Georgia to an Armenian family, Rouben relocated to England and started directing plays in London in 1922...

's 1931 Pre-Code
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...

 version, which had starred Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...

. Fleming's 1942 film version of John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...

's Tortilla Flat
Tortilla Flat (film)
Tortilla Flat is a 1942 film with Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Frank Morgan, Akim Tamiroff, and Sheldon Leonard based on the novel by John Steinbeck. It was directed by Victor Fleming.- Plot :...

starred Spencer Tracy, John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...

, Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...

, and Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

. Other films that Fleming made with Tracy include Captains Courageous (for which Tracy won his first Oscar), A Guy Named Joe, and Test Pilot. He directed Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

 in a total of five films - Red Dust, The White Sister, Test Pilot, Gone With the Wind, and Adventure.

Fleming died suddenly from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 soon after completing Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (1948 film)
Joan of Arc is a 1948 Technicolor film directed by Victor Fleming; starring Ingrid Bergman as the French religious icon and war heroine. It was produced by Walter Wanger. It is based on Maxwell Anderson's successful Broadway play Joan of Lorraine, which also starred Bergman, and was adapted for the...

(1948) with Ingrid Bergman. It was one of the few films that he did not make for MGM. Despite mixed reviews, Fleming's film version of the life of Joan
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...

 received seven Academy Award nominations, winning two Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

.

Partial directorial filmography

  • Joan of Arc
    Joan of Arc (1948 film)
    Joan of Arc is a 1948 Technicolor film directed by Victor Fleming; starring Ingrid Bergman as the French religious icon and war heroine. It was produced by Walter Wanger. It is based on Maxwell Anderson's successful Broadway play Joan of Lorraine, which also starred Bergman, and was adapted for the...

    (1948)
  • Adventure
    Adventure (1945 film)
    Adventure is a 1945 film, based on the novel The Anointed by Clyde Brion Davis. Clark Gable and Greer Garson star as a sailor and a librarian...

    (1945)
  • A Guy Named Joe
    A Guy Named Joe
    A Guy Named Joe is a 1943 film made by MGM, directed by Victor Fleming, produced by Everett Riskin, from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, adapted by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan from a story by Chandler Sprague and David Boehm. It starred Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne and Van Johnson, with Esther Williams...

    (1943)
  • Tortilla Flat
    Tortilla Flat (film)
    Tortilla Flat is a 1942 film with Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Frank Morgan, Akim Tamiroff, and Sheldon Leonard based on the novel by John Steinbeck. It was directed by Victor Fleming.- Plot :...

    (1942)
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film)
    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Rather than being a new film version of the novel, it is a direct remake of the 1931 film of the same name, which differs greatly from the novel. The movie was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's...

    (1941)
  • Gone with the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (film)
    Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

    (1939)
  • The Wizard of Oz
    The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
    The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

    (1939) (co-director)
  • The Great Waltz
    The Great Waltz (film)
    The Great Waltz is a 1938 American biographical film based very loosely on the life of Johann Strauss II. It starred Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet and Miliza Korjus. Rainer received top billing at the producer's insistence, but her role is comparatively minor as Strauss' wife, Poldi Volgelhuber...

    (1938) (uncredited)
  • Test Pilot
    Test Pilot (film)
    Test Pilot is a 1938 film directed by Victor Fleming and featuring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, and Lionel Barrymore. The movie tells the story of a daredevil test pilot , his wife , and his best friend...

    (1938)
  • Captains Courageous (1937)
  • The Good Earth
    The Good Earth (film)
    The Good Earth is a film about Chinese farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West from the play by Donald Davis and Owen Davis, which was in itself based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S...

    (1937) (uncredited)
  • The Farmer Takes a Wife
    The Farmer Takes a Wife
    The Farmer Takes a Wife is a 1934 play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly based on the novel Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds. It was well-received upon its opening night on Broadway on October 30, 1934 at the 46th Street Theatre. The production was directed by Marc Connelly and used set designs by...

    (1935)
  • Reckless
    Reckless (1935 film)
    Reckless is a 1935 American musical film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Jean Harlow, William Powell and Franchot Tone. The story was based on the scandal of the 1931 marriage between torch singer Libby Holman and tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds and his subsequent alleged...

    (1935)
  • Treasure Island
    Treasure Island (1934 film)
    Treasure Island is a 1934 movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel Treasure Island. Jim Hawkins discovers a treasure map and travels on a sailing ship to a remote island, but pirates led by Long John Silver threaten to take away the honest seafarers’ riches and...

    (1934)
  • Bombshell
    Bombshell (film)
    Bombshell is a Pre-Code film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, C. Aubrey Smith, Mary Forbes and Franchot Tone.-Plot:...

    (1933)
  • The White Sister (1933)
  • Red Dust
    Red Dust
    Red Dust is an American 1932 romantic drama film directed by Victor Fleming. The picture is the second of six movies Clark Gable and Jean Harlow made together and was produced during the Pre-Code era of Hollywood...

    (1932)
  • The Wet Parade
    The Wet Parade
    The Wet Parade is a 1932 film directed by Victor Fleming based on a 1931 novel by Upton Sinclair, starring Robert Young, Myrna Loy, Walter Huston, and Jimmy Durante....

    (1932)
  • Renegades
    Renegades (1930 film)
    Renegades is a 1930 film by Victor Fleming about four French legionnaires in North Africa who are betrayed by a woman. It stars Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy...

    (1930)
  • Common Clay
    Common Clay
    Common Clay is a 1930 film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Constance Bennett and Lew Ayres, based on the play of the same name by Cleves Kinkead. The film was about a young servant who is seduced by the master of the house but he won't have anything to do with her other than sex because of...

    (1930)
  • The Virginian
    The Virginian (1929 film)
    The Virginian is a 1929 western movie starring Gary Cooper as the Virginian and Walter Huston as the villainous Trampas. The early sound film was directed by Victor Fleming....

    (1929)
  • The Wolf Song
    The Wolf Song
    The Wolf Song, also known as Wolf Song, is a 1929 silent film with a synchronized score and sound effects directed by Victor Fleming and starring Gary Cooper and Lupe Vélez. This Pre-Code film is notable for showing full frontal nudity...

    (1929)
  • Abie's Irish Rose
    Abie's Irish Rose
    Abie's Irish Rose is a popular comedy by Anne Nichols familiar from stage productions, films and radio programs. The basic premise involves an Irish Catholic girl and a young Jewish man who marry despite the objections of their families.-Theater and films:...

    (1929)
  • The Awakening
    The Awakening (1928 film)
    The Awakening is a feature film directed by Victor Fleming.-Cast:*Vilma Bánky as Marie Ducrot*Walter Byron as Count Karl von Hagen*Louis Wolheim as Le Bete*George Davis as The Orderly*William Orlamond as Grandfather Ducrot...

    (1928)
  • The Rough Riders
    The Rough Riders
    The Rough Riders is a silent film, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Charles Farrell, Mary Astor and Noah Beery. This fictional account of Theodore Roosevelt's military unit in Cuba was directed by Victor Fleming.-Cast:...

    (1927)
  • Hula
    Hula (film)
    Hula is a silent film by Victor Fleming, based on the novel Hula, a Romance of Hawaii by Armine von Tempski, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Clara Bow, and released by Paramount Pictures. It was one of the top 10 grossing movies of 1927....

    (1927)
  • The Way of All Flesh
    The Way of All Flesh (film)
    The Way of All Flesh is a drama film directed by Victor Fleming, written by Lajos Biró, Jules Furthman and Julian Johnson from a story by Perley Poore Sheehan. The film is unrelated to Samuel Butler's novel The Way of All Flesh, and is now considered a lost film.-Cast:*Emil Jannings - August...

    (1927)
  • Mantrap (1926)
  • The Blind Goddess
    The Blind Goddess
    The Blind Goddess is a 1926 film by Victor Fleming....

    (1926)
  • Lord Jim
    Lord Jim (1925 film)
    Lord Jim is a 1925 silent film starring Percy Marmont , Noah Beery, and Duke Kahanamoku. The movie was directed by Victor Fleming and based on the novel Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. A print is preserved at the Library of Congress...

    (1925)
  • A Son of His Father
    A Son of His Father
    A Son of His Father is a 1925 silent film Western directed by Victor Fleming. Uncertain whether this is a lost or extant film -Cast:*Bessie Love - Nora Shea*Warner Baxter - Big Boy Morgan*Raymond Hatton - Charlie Grey*Walter McGrail - Holdbrook...

    (1925)
  • Adventure
    Adventure (1925 film)
    Adventure is a 1925 film by Victor Fleming, based on Jack London's 1911 novel Adventure.-Plot:A Solomon Islands plantation owner, David Sheldon becomes ill from blackwater fever following the death of many of his fieldhands die from the disease. Joan Lackland , a female soldier of fortune, arrives...

    (1925)
  • The Devil's Cargo
    The Devil's Cargo
    The Devil's Cargo is a 1925 film by Victor Fleming.-Cast:*Wallace Beery ... Ben*Pauline Starke ... Far Sampson*Claire Adams ... Martha Joyce*William Collier Jr. ... John Joyce*Raymond Hatton ... Mate*George Cooper ... Jerry Dugan...

    (1925)
  • Code of the Sea
    Code of the Sea
    Code of the Sea is a 1924 film by Victor Fleming....

    (1924)
  • Empty Hands
    Empty Hands
    -Cast:*Jack Holt - Grimshaw*Norma Shearer - Claire Endicott*Charles Clary - Robert Endicott*Hazel Keener - Mrs.Endicott*Gertrude Olmstead - Typsy*Ramsay Wallace -Montie*Ward Crane - Milt Bisnet*Charles Stevens - Indian Guide*Hank Mann - Spring Water Man...

    (1924)
  • The Call of the Canyon
    The Call of the Canyon
    The Call of the Canyon is a silent Western directed by Victor Fleming. The film was based on the story of the same name by Zane Grey.-Preservation status:...

    (1923)
  • To the Last Man
    To the Last Man (film)
    To the Last Man is a 1923 film directed by Victor Fleming and based on a novel by Zane Grey.-Cast:*Richard Dix as Jean Isbel*Lois Wilson as Ellen Jorth*Noah Beery as Colter*Robert Edeson as Gaston Isbel*Frank Campeau as Blue...

    (1923)
  • Law of the Lawless (1923)
  • Dark Secrets (1923)
  • Anna Ascends
    Anna Ascends
    Anna Ascends is a 1922 film by Victor Fleming, based on the play of the same title by Henry Chapman Ford.-External links:*...

    (1922)
  • Red Hot Romance (1922)
  • The Lane That Had No Turning
    The Lane That Had No Turning
    The Lane That Had No Turning is a 1922 silent film by Victor Fleming.-Cast:*Agnes Ayres - Madelinette*Theodore Kosloff - Louis Racine*Mahlon Hamilton - George Fournel*Wilton Taylor - Joe Lajeunesse*Frank Campeau - Tardiff*Lillian Leighton - Marie...

    (1922)
  • Woman's Place
    Woman's Place
    - Cast :*Constance Talmadge ... Josephine Gerson*Kenneth Harlan ... Jim Bradley*Hassard Short ... Freddy Bleeker*Florence Short ... Amy Bleeker*Ina Rorke ... Mrs. Margaret Belknap...

    (1921)
  • Mama's Affair
    Mama's Affair
    Mama's Affair is a 1921 silent film by Victor Fleming, based on the play of the same title by Rachel Barton Butler.A print of this film survives in the Library of Congress.-Cast:* Constance Talmadge - Eve Orrin* Effie Shannon - Mrs. Orrin...

    (1921)
  • The Mollycoddle
    The Mollycoddle
    The Mollycoddle is a 1920 film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery, and directed by Victor Fleming.- Cast :*Douglas Fairbanks ... Richard Marshall III, IV and V*Ruth Renick ... Virginia Hale...

    (1920)
  • When the Clouds Roll By
    When the Clouds Roll by
    When the Clouds Roll by is a 1919 comedy film starring Douglas Fairbanks and directed by Victor Fleming and Theodore Reed. The plot involves a man following the advice of a psychiatrist as he romances a woman in Greenwich Village.-Cast:...

    (1919)

External links

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