Penniless immigrant turned successful glove salesman who entered films in 1912, persuading his father-in-law, impressario Jesse Lasky, to establish a production and distribution company. Together with C. B. DeMille as director, they formed the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company and scored a huge success with their first film, "The Squaw Man" (1914). In 1916 they merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players, but infighting inspired Goldfish to leave and start afresh, forming the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation with Edgar Selwyn and others. Goldwyn's policy of enlisting only the best available talent and turning out only the finest product would become his legacy, a standard of excellence dubbed "the Goldwyn touch."
Two years after Goldwyn was forced out of power in 1922 his former company merged with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions to form MGM. Undaunted, Goldwyn founded his own corporation, Samuel Goldwyn Inc., and this time steered a completely independent path, appointing neither studio bosses nor a board of directors.
Notorious for his idiosyncratic use--or misuse--of the English language ("include me out," "anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined," etc.), Goldwyn had a knack for finding the right property and talent. Among the stars he sought out and worked with were Ronald Colman, Vilma Banky, Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, Will Rogers, David Niven and Merle Oberon. Goldwyn also recruited some of the finest writers in the business, including Sinclair Lewis, Ben Hecht, Lillian Hellman and Sidney Kingsley. He enjoyed his most fruitful relationship with William Wyler, who directed Goldwyn's more glittering productions, such as "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946).