Age, Biography and Wiki

Mitchell Leisen (James Mitchell Leisen) was born on 6 October, 1898 in Menominee, Michigan, USA, is a director,art_director,costume_designer. Discover Mitchell Leisen's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 74 years old?

Popular As James Mitchell Leisen
Occupation director,art_director,costume_designer
Age 74 years old
Zodiac Sign Libra
Born 6 October, 1898
Birthday 6 October
Birthplace Menominee, Michigan, USA
Date of death 28 October, 1972
Died Place Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 6 October. He is a member of famous Director with the age 74 years old group.

Mitchell Leisen Height, Weight & Measurements

At 74 years old, Mitchell Leisen height not available right now. We will update Mitchell Leisen's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
Eye Color Not Available
Hair Color Not Available

Who Is Mitchell Leisen's Wife?

His wife is Stella Yeager (1927 - ?)

Family
Parents Not Available
Wife Stella Yeager (1927 - ?)
Sibling Not Available
Children Not Available

Mitchell Leisen Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Mitchell Leisen worth at the age of 74 years old? Mitchell Leisen’s income source is mostly from being a successful Director. He is from United States. We have estimated Mitchell Leisen's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income Director

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Timeline

1890

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 642-649. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

1898

Mitchell Leisen was born on October 6, 1898 in Menominee, Michigan, USA as James Mitchell Leisen.

1922

Pioneer pilot, sculptor and qualified home decorator. Studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. Moved to Chicago to work in the advertising section of the art department for the Chicago Tribune. Held a second job with the architectural firm Marshall & Fox, while acting in his spare time. Eventually moved to Hollywod. Failed as an actor, but was noted for the sets he created for the Hollywood Community Theatre. Brought to the attention of Cecil B. DeMille, who signed him on as a costume designer, despite Leisen's lack of previous experience in this area. Worked for DeMille until 1922, then moved on to design costumes for Douglas Fairbanks at United Artists. Continued to design costumes for many of his cast members well into his later directing career.

1929

Worked in the dual capacity of costume designer and art director at MGM (1929-31) and at Paramount (1932-33). Became Paramount's most reliable contract director (1933-51), noted for visual elegance and for his ability to direct actresses. His forte were comedies and romances. His best films often starred Fred MacMurray or Ray Milland and were scripted by Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder. When Sturges and Wilder turned to directing their own films, from the early 1940s, Leisen's own career began to decline.

1934

He was a director and art director, known for Death Takes a Holiday (1934), The Mating Season (1951) and Hold Back the Dawn (1941). He was married to Stella Yeager.

1939

He has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Midnight (1939).

1941

Directed 2 actresses to Oscar nominations: Olivia de Havilland (Best Actress: Hold Back the Dawn (1941) & To Each His Own (1946)) and Thelma Ritter (Best Supporting Actress: The Mating Season (1951)). De Havilland won an Oscar for her performance in the 1946 film, continually citing Leisen as the favorite among her directors.

1944

Film costume designer Edith Head is credited for Ginger Rogers' modern day dress in the Paramount Pictures feature film-musical Lady in the Dark (1944). Broadway-film couturier/set designer Raoul Pene Du Bois is credited in the feature film as the costume/set designer in the circus dream-musical dance sequences. Paramount film studio art department supervisor Hans Dreier was the Paramount feature film's Production Designer. The film's director Mitchell Leisen, (formerly a set and costume designer), supervised and contributed his creative imaginative set and costume ideas, suggestions, in the creation of the film's scenery and costume applications. Leisen was instrumental in creating the mink-fur skirted gown lined in jewels for Ginger Rogers' musical circus sequence. Raoul Pene Du Bois designed this costume which has usually been attributed to the films lead costumer Edith Head. The first mink gown was created, and during fittings and rehearsals, the costume's fur lined jeweled weight was just too heavy for Rogers to walk, nor to stand (up) during long filming sequences, nor to dance or perform in a choreographed production number. The first original gown, lined with matched paste-glass rubies and emeralds, cost $35,000 (in 1944 dollars) to manufacture. Brief shots of Rogers in the fur skirted paste-jeweled gown were photographed. The New York costume wizard Barbara Karinska was at the cross town - Culver City MGM studio collaborating with the costume designer Irene on the filming of Kismet (1944). Raoul Pene Du Bois, who had collaborated with Barbara Karinska in New York City's Broadway theatricals, begged, imploring Madam Karinska to remake the fur skirt to enable Ginger Rogers to perform and dance in the musical production number. Karinska made a second version of the mink dress, lined with sequins, which, less bulky - weighed less, was lighter for Rogers's choreographed dream-circus-dance production number. Studio costume departments maintained a fur vault providing fur pelts for coats and costume trimming. The floor length mink skirt for Rogers used mink pelts from this vault. The original show-piece mink skirt, too heavy to wear, was rebuilt as a new costume. Karinska built a wire hoop covered with a fine netting, hanging and spacing the mink pelts apart from each other; supported by net, reducing the number of mink pelts on the skirt's total weight, allowing the skirt's flexibility on the actress' body during the dance sequence. Both gowns are shown in the movie. The original fur-skirted gown with the paste-glass jewels was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The second fur skirted gown was DE-constructed, with the fur pelts returned to the studio's fur vault. Karinska was never credited for building this particular Ginger Rogers dance-costume.

1951

In 1951, Leisen left Paramount to freelance, believing that the studio was giving him inferior scripts to force him to relinquish his remunerative contract.