Walter Seltzer(1914-2011)
- Producer
The son of a motion picture exhibitor, Seltzer started out as a theatre
usher before joining MGM in the 1930s where he worked on the
advertising campaign for such films as
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). He served in the Marines for four years during World War II before his return to Hollywood as director of publicity for Hal B. Wallis Productions.
As a full member of MGM's publicity department in the
1950s and early
60s, he was employed as a press agent. This involved supplying
stories about the stars to columnists like Louella Parsons
and Hedda Hopper. He was also prominent in
successfully marketing the Academy Award-winning film
Marty (1955). In 1959, he turned to film
production, notably for his close friends
Charlton Heston (Court Films) and
Marlon Brando ( Pennebaker Productions). Some of the best product to come out of the Seltzer-Heston collaboration were the apocalyptic sci-fi classics The Omega Man (1971) and Soylent Green (1973), as well as the gritty, sombre outdoor western Will Penny (1967).
Seltzer retired in the late 1970's and became active as a fund raiser for the
Motion Picture and Television Fund.
