Biography

In 1936, he paid author Margaret Mitchell $50,000 for the movie rights to her novel "Gone With the Wind". Later, after Gone with the Wind (1939) became a blockbuster film, he realized he had underpaid Mitchell and gave her an additional $50,000.

On May 11, 1976, Selznick's 22-year-old daughter Mary Jennifer (by his second wife Jennifer Jones) killed herself by jumping from the tallest building in Westwood (Los Angeles) while her psychotherapist was away on vacation. It was two days after Mother's Day and one day after what would have been her father's 74th birthday. Jennifer Jones subsequently became a therapist herself.

Selznick was famed for his long, detailed and incredibly involved (and, to many of the people who received them, maddening) memos sent to many different people during the production of a film--not just the director or writer but cameramen, editors, and pretty much anyone who had anything to do with the picture. A publicist on one of his films once got a Western Union telegram from Selznick that ended up being more than 30 feet long and finished up with, "I have just received a phone call that pretty much clears up this matter. Therefore you can disregard this wire." These famed memos are the subject of an entire book, "Memo From David Selznick" edited by Rudy Behlmer. According to Behlmer, Selznick dictated his every thought to secretaries from 1916-65 in memos that filled 2,000 file boxes. Shortly before Selznick's death in 1965, Alfred Hitchcock joked that he had just finished reading the first memorandum Selznick had sent him in 1939, adding that he was going to make a film out of it called "The Longest Story Ever Told".

When Selznick announced he was starting his own production company, Irving Thalberg called him to ask If he had any financing yet. Selznick replied, "Not a nickel." Thalberg, usually quite careful with money, said, "Well, me and Norma [wife Norma Shearer] would like to give you $250,000 to get on your feet." Thalberg thus became the first financier of Selznick Enterprises.

Hated the "baby doll" eyebrow look that was made popular by Max Factor and sported by the majority of Hollywood actresses during the 1930s. He insisted that his contract players Vivien Leigh and Ingrid Bergman sport a more natural look.

The way I see it, my function is to be responsible for everything.

The difference between me and other producers is that I am interested in the thousands and thousands of details that go into the making of a film. It is the sum total of all these things that either makes a great picture or destroys it.

I have never gone after honors instead of dollars. But I have understood the relationship between the two.

Very few people have mastered the art of enjoying their wealth. I have mastered the art, and therefore spend time enjoying myself.

[some examples of his philosophy] I don't want to be normal. Who wants to be normal?... Once photographed, life here is ended... It's somehow symbolic of Hollywood that Tara was just a facade, with no rooms inside... There might have been good movies if there had been no movie industry.