Universal Pictures / Photographer not credited · Public domain

A film and television producer who specialized in glamorous melodrama and light comedy at a time when both were considered unserious by critics, turning out hits including Pillow Talk (1959), Magnificent Obsession (1954) and Imitation of Life (1959). His instinct for romance, glamour and the deliberate "tearjerker" made him one of the most commercially reliable producers of his era.