Henry Blanke

Biography

German-American producer, the son of a painter, Wilhelm Blanke. Henry began in films in 1920 as personal assistant to the renowned director Ernst Lubitsch whom he accompanied to Hollywood in 1922. However, while the autocratic Lubitsch soon departed following artistic differences with the equally headstrong studio boss Jack L. Warner, Blanke remained behind at an ever increasing salary which would eventually top $5000 a week. From 1928 to 1930, he was based in Berlin, supervising the German-based output of Warner Brothers. Returning to the fold at Burbank in 1931, he brought with him the noted German director William Dieterle, who stayed on Warner's roster until 1939. In 1931, Blanke became staff producer and production supervisor, subordinate in the studio hierarchy only to Hal B. Wallis and to the Warner brothers themselves. Blanke remained with the company until 1961. Popular with directors and production staff alike for his easy-going, laissez-faire approach (never a typical character trait of producers, then or now), Blanke turned out numerous imperishable classics featuring the cream of Warner Brothers talent: Bette Davis (Jezebel (1938), The Old Maid (1939)), Errol Flynn (The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Sea Hawk (1940)) , Humphrey Bogart (The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) ) , James Cagney (Come Fill the Cup (1951)), Paul Muni (The Life of Emile Zola (1937), Juarez (1939)) and Edward G. Robinson (A Dispatch from Reuters (1940), The Sea Wolf (1941)).