Harry Saltzman

Herschel Saltzman (October 27, 1915 – September 28, 1994), better known as Harry Saltzman, was a Canadian theatre and film producer, best known for his role in co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R. Broccoli. He lived for the most of his life in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England.

Life and career

Saltzman was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, the son of Jewish immigrants. Raised in Saint John, New Brunswick for the first seven years of his life, Saltzman was 30 when he learned where he'd actually been born. His father, a horticulturalist, then moved the family to Cleveland, Ohio. He ran away from home at the age of 15, according to daughter Hilary Saltzman in the Ian Fleming Foundation documentary Harry Saltzman: Showman. At about the age of 17, he joined a circus and traveled with them for some years.

In 1932, Saltzman moved to Paris, France to study political science and economics. However "within a year," he was "hand-picking talent for 40 two-a-day vaudeville houses all over Europe." Saltzman claimed that he had worked as an assistant for French film director René Clair, who came to America in 1940 to make the film The Flame of New Orleans.