Arthur B. Krim (4 April 1910 – 21 September 1994) was an American

entertainment lawyer Entertainment law, also referred to as media law, is legal services provided to the entertainment industry. These services in entertainment law overlap with intellectual property law. Intellectual property has many moving parts that include tradema ...

, the former finance chairman for the

U.S. Democratic Party The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Founded in 1828, it was predominantly built by Martin Van Buren, who assembled a wide cadre of politicians in every state behind war hero An ...

, an adviser to President Lyndon Johnson and the former chairman of

Eagle-Lion Films Eagle-Lion Films was a British-American film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to distribute British productions in the United States. In 1947, it acquired Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures, a small American production company, ...

(1946–1949),

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...

(1951–1978), and Orion Pictures (1978–1992). His more than four decades as a movie studio head is one of the longest in Hollywood history.

Biography

Born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, he received his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1930, and graduated from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

two years later. Krim was a partner at the firm of Phillips Nizer Benjamin Krim & Ballon. He worked as an entertainment lawyer for clients such as

Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdra ...

and

John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...

. He served in the Army Service Forces in the Pacific Theatre of Operations where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Film

In 1946 Krim and his partner Robert Benjamin managed the American portion of

where they sought top talent to produce their films.Tzioumakis, Yannis ''American Independent Cinema: Second Edition'' Edinburgh University Press, 7 Mar 2018 When Krim and Benjamin took over

in 1951, stockholders gave them three years to turn a profit; they did it in six months. Krim remained with UA until 1978 when he created Orion Pictures.

Democratic Party

Krim became an influential Democrat, head of the Democratic Party Financing Committee and advised Presidents

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

and

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

Personal life

He was married to

Mathilde Krim Mathilde Krim ( he, מתילדה קרים; née Galland; July 9, 1926 – January 15, 2018) was a medical researcher and the founding chairman of amfAR, American Foundation for AIDS Research. Biography Mathilde Galland was born in Como, Italy t ...

. He died in New York City in 1994, aged 84.

References

External links

*
Oral History Interviews with Arthur B. Krim, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Arthur Krim papers, 1920 - 1990
at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York, NY {{DEFAULTSORT:Krim, Arthur B. 1910 births 1994 deaths American film studio executives American entertainment lawyers Jewish American attorneys Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award winners Orion Pictures Corporation Businesspeople from Los Angeles Columbia Law School alumni 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American businesspeople Columbia College (New York) alumni American independent film production company founders 20th-century American Jews