Victor Fleming

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 351-357. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Victor Fleming entered the film business as a stuntman in 1910, mainly doing stunt driving - which came easy to him, as he had been a mechanic and professional race-car driver. He became interested in working on the other side of the camera, and eventually got a job as a cameraman on many of the films of Douglas Fairbanks.

He was working as a chauffeur for a wealthy family when he met director Allan Dwan in 1913. When the director began talking to him about repairing his own car, he discovered Fleming was knowledgeable about cameras and offered him a job as assistant cinematographer. Working behind the camera, Fleming learned about action pictures from Dwan and comedies from Marshall Neilan.

He soon began directing, and his first big hit was The Virginian (1929). It was the movie that turned Gary Cooper into a star (a fact Cooper never forgot; he and Fleming remained friends for life).

Fleming's star continued to rise during the '30s, and he was responsible for many of the films that would eventually be considered classics, such as Red Dust (1932), Bombshell (1933), Treasure Island (1934), and the two films that were the high marks of his career: Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Ironically Fleming was brought in on both pictures to replace other directors and smooth out the troubled productions, a feat he accomplished masterfully. His career took somewhat of a downturn in the '40s, and most of his films, with the exception of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

When making Gone with the Wind (1939), he wanted Scarlett, for at least once in the film, to look like his hunting Buddy Clark Gable's type of woman. So, when wearing the stunning low-cut burgundy velvet dress with rhinestones that Scarlett wears to Ashley Wilkes' birthday party in the second half of the film, to achieve the desired cleavage for Fleming, Walter Plunkett had to tape Vivien Leigh's breasts together.

Hyde (1941), weren't particularly successful.

The only director to have two films listed in the top 10 of the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 100 greatest American films, Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).