Director Vincent Sherman

(July 16, 1906 – June 18, 2006)

 

 

Vincent Sherman was born Abe Orovitz in Vienna, Georgia in 1906.  With the South just four decades removed from the Reconstruction period, it was an incongruous location for the son of a Jewish dry-goods salesman to grow up.  Sherman later described the theoretical distance between Vienna, Georgia and Hollywood, California as considerably, more than the actual two thousand miles

 

After graduating from Oglethorpe University, Sherman went to New York to sell a play and then hustled to become a stage actor, got married and ended up going to Hollywood in 1933 to try the movies.  He made his screen debut in Counselor at Law alongside John Barrymore, but there were no follow-on roles so he returned to stage work, directing and writing as well as acting.

 

After touring in the stage play “Dead End”, Sherman returned to Hollywood for good in 1937.  This time he landed the ubiquitous seven-year contract with Warner Brothers under producer Bryan Foy.

During his long and successful carrier, he directed many of Hollywood’s great stars like, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, Miriam Hopkins,Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, and Humphrey Bogart, Lee J. Cobb, Glenn Ford, Errol Flynn, Paul Newman, and most likely many others.

He was a good friend of actor Errol Flynn, whom he directed in “Adventures of Don Juan” (1949).

 

Vincent Sherman was married to Hedda for 53 years, who died.1984 and they had one son and one daughter.
Son: Eric Sherman
Daughter: Hedwin Naimark

 

Girlfriend: Francine York (companion for 9 years, until his death)

 

Vincent Sherman’s son is documentary film producer Eric Sherman.  

 

Trivia:

 

Warner told the embryonic director: “I’m giving you this guy Bogart and for God’s sake, see if you can get him to play something besides Duke Mantee!”  Bogart then a Warner Brothers contract player in his fourth year at the studio, Humphrey Bogart accepted the hokey part without complaint, and the film became a profitable if improbable success and with it a start to Bogart’s star carrier.

 

Mistress: Bette Davis (actress, on-set extramarital affair 1943-44)
Mistress: Rita Hayworth (actress, on-set affair, during “Affair in Trinidad” 1952)
Mistress: Joan Crawford (actress, on-set affair during 3 films)