A craftsman in the best tradition of Hollywood's Golden Age, Robert Z(igler) Leonard (1889-1968) worked at several studios before settling in at MGM, where he repeatedly directed many of that studio's top stars. Through the mid-1940s, he often produced or co-produced his movies. The Chicago native, who began in silent films as an actor, directed several Norma Shearer showcases including The Divorcee (1930), which won an Oscar for Shearer and a nomination for Leonard. His films with Clark Gable included Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (1931), which also starred Greta Garbo. Leonard then paired Shearer and Gable in the Eugene O'Neill drama Strange Interlude (1932). He guided Jeanette MacDonald through six movies four of which, including Maytime (1937), co-starred Nelson Eddy. Myrna Loy acted in three films for Leonard including the Oscar-winning biopic The Great Ziegfeld (1936), while Charles Laughton also had the honor three times memorably in the melodrama The Bribe (1949), also starring Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner. Van Johnson acted in no less than six Leonard films including the charming period musical In the Good Old Summertime (1949), costarring Judy Garland. Among the glamorous MGM stars who made one film each for Leonard were Hedy Lamarr (Ziegfeld Girl, 1941) and Elizabeth Taylor (Cynthia , 1947).
By Roger Fristoe
