Background
Salkind, Michel was born in 1890 in Kiev. Son of a lawyer.
Salkind, Michel was born in 1890 in Kiev. Son of a lawyer.
Graduated from Kiev University.
Director of the Kiev Opera. Impresario to many opera stars, including Sobinov and Chaliapin. Sent by the Provisional Government on a mission to Siberia, October 1917.
Arrested and sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal. Escaped. In the anarchy of the Civil War, appointed head of all horse transport. Met Lenin and Trotsky, 1920.
Moved to Moscow, where he met Meyerhold. Emigrated, 1921. Producer of The Joyless Street (director, G. W. Pabst). Promoter of Greta Gustafson (later Greta Garbo).
Agent for Aleksei Granovskii’s Jewish Theatre, and its famous leading actor Solomon Mikhoels, during their European tour. Spent 3 days in Mexico with Mikhoels, then took the theatre on to the USA. Produced some 68 films, including The Trial (after Kafka), The Life of Shelley, and Don Quixote (with Chaliapin). Left Germany, 1933, and moved to France, then in 1939, to Mexico, where he produced, with his son Aleksandr, some 14 films, including a comedy with Buster Keaton, and The Gentle One (after Dostoevskii).
Returned to Paris, 1946. Met Abel Gance and produced his famous film Austerlitz, 1960, with a budget of 2.5 million dollars. After The Life of Cervantes, tried to produce The Life of Lenin but his script was turned down by his financial backers.
In his later years, artistic adviser on his son’s films (who later produced The Three Musketeers, Superman 1 and 2, and others).