Paul Bern

Paul Bern (1889 to 1932) was a German-born American film director, screenwriter and producer who worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he became assistant to the producer Irving Thalberg. Born Paul Levy in Wandsbek, now part of Hamburg, he moved with his family to New York City as a child, studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked on Broadway before moving to Hollywood in the early 1920s. He began as a film editor and rose to scenario writing and directing for United Artists and Paramount, then to full-time producing at MGM. He helped launch the career of Jean Harlow, whom he married in July 1932. Two months later he was found dead of a gunshot wound at their Beverly Hills home; the coroner ruled it a suicide, although alternative theories about his death have been proposed since. Grand Hotel, which he and Thalberg produced, was released six days after his death and won the Academy Award for Best Picture.