Walter Wanger (July 11, 1894 – November 18, 1968) was an American film producer active in filmmaking from the 1910s to the turbulent production of Cleopatra in 1963. Wanger developed a reputation as an intellectual and a socially conscious movie executive who produced provocative message movies and glittering romantic melodramas. Wanger was strongly influenced by European films, and made many productions geared towards international markets.His career began at Paramount Pictures in the 1920s and led him to work at virtually every major studio as either a contract producer or an independent. Wanger served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1939 to October 1941 and from December 1941 to 1945.
In 1949 he turned down a Special Academy Award given him for Joan of Arc (1948). Wanger was furious at the way the film had been marketed and blamed tycoon Howard Hughes - who at the time owned RKO Studios, the studio that distributed the film - for its commercial failure. He was reportedly also angry that the film's several Oscar nominations did not include one for Best Picture.
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The surname Wanger, as pronounced, rhymes with 'stranger'
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In 1951 Wanger was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of talent agent Jennings Lang. Lang was the agent of Joan Bennett, then Wanger's wife, and Wanger discovered the two of them were having an affair. He caught them in the act, and wound up shooting Lang in the groin. Wanger served a four-month sentence in the County Honor Farm at Castaic, 39 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles, then quickly returning to his career to make a series of successful films. His experiences there resulted in his producing the seminal prison film classic Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954).
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Holds a special place in the history of motion picture production - he was the first and last studio executive to suggest to Groucho Marx that he lose the greasepaint moustache as it was an "obvious fake". (Source: Joseph Adamson III in his book "Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo" (1973)
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Cleopatra
1963
producer
I Want to Live!
1958
producer
Navy Wife
1956
producer
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1956
executive producer - uncredited
A.N.T.A. Album of 1955
1955
TV Movie assistant producer
The Adventures of Hajji Baba
1954
producer
Riot in Cell Block 11
1954
producer
Fort Vengeance
1953
producer
Kansas Pacific
1953
producer
Battle Zone
1952
producer
Lady in the Iron Mask
1952
producer
Aladdin and His Lamp
1952
producer
The Reckless Moment
1949
producer
Reign of Terror
1949
executive producer - uncredited
Tulsa
1949
producer
Joan of Arc
1948
producer
Tap Roots
1948
producer
Secret Beyond the Door...
1947
executive producer - uncredited
The Lost Moment
1947
producer
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman
1947
producer
Canyon Passage
1946
producer
Night in Paradise
1946
producer
Scarlet Street
1945
executive producer - uncredited
Salome Where She Danced
1945
producer
Ladies Courageous
1944
producer
To the People of the United States
1943
Documentary short producer
'Gung Ho!': The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders
$1.6 Million
