Gregson Edward Bautzer (April 3, 1911 – October 26, 1987) was an American attorney who represented such individuals as
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
,
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cin ...
and
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 190? was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion-picture cont ...
,
Kirk Kerkorian
Kerkor Kirk Kerkorian (; June 6, 1917 – June 15, 2015) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was the president and CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian ...
,
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
and
William R. Wilkerson.
Early life
Bautzer was born in the Los Angeles community of
San Pedro, California
San Pedro ( ; ) is a neighborhood located within the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay and Los Angeles Harbor Region, Harbor region of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los ...
to Edward H. Bautzer, a descendant of German immigrants, and his wife Blanche Buckhout. The elder Bautzer was active in the San Pedro community, a civic leader, political activist and attorney. Bautzer's mother, before her marriage, had been a school teacher.
[Gladstone, James B., "The Man Who Seduced Hollywood: The Life and Loves of Greg Bautzer, Tinseltown's Most Powerful Lawyer," Chicago Review Press, 2013, Part I, Chapter 1, ''The Debate Champ,'' e-book] Bautzer's father died when he was ten years old. From a young age, Bautzer stated his intent to follow in his father's footsteps by practicing law. After his father's death, Bautzer's widowed mother returned to teaching. Bautzer contributed financially by taking after school jobs, selling newspapers, performing janitorial work on yachts harbored in San Pedro, and waiting on tables in local eateries.
Bautzer attended
San Pedro High School
San Pedro High School is a public high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District and is located in the San Pedro portion of the city of Los Angeles, California. The school serves the entirety of San Pedro as well as most of the Eastvie ...
where he was an exemplary student. A self-disciplined young man of considerable scholastic achievement, he was also endowed with a congenial, enthusiastic personality that easily attracted friendships.
While in high school, Bautzer took an active interest in public speaking and while yet a teenager, gained community recognition for his debating skills. He proceeded to enter national oratorical competitions. In 1926, he took second place in the West Coast division of the National Oratorical Contest, winning two hundred fifty dollars.
In 1927, Bautzer and his mother relocated to another part of Los Angeles where she had accepted an appointment as principal of an area school. In 1928, he entered the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
(USC) on a scholarship. He became a member of the
Phi Kappa Psi
Phi Kappa Psi (), commonly known as Phi Psi, is an American collegiate social fraternity that was founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1852. The fraternity has over ninety chapters at accredited four-year colleges and uni ...
fraternity, the Skull and Dagger honor society, and captain of the varsity debate team. In 1930, he was honored by being selected as one of three university students to be on the All California Collegiate Debate team. Bautzer graduated with a bachelor's degree from USC in June 1932. Before continuing his education at
USC Law School, he took a year off from his studies to work and save money. He obtained his law degree in 1936.
Personal life
While attending law school, Bautzer met
socialite
A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having ...
Marion Jahns; they married on January 2, 1935 and divorced in 1937.
From 1938 to 1941, he owned a home at 1764 Prospect Drive in the
Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon is a mountainous neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills region of the Santa Monica Mountains, within the Hollywood Hills West district of Los Angeles, California. The main thoroughfare of Laurel Canyon Boulevard connects the neig ...
area of Los Angeles.
[LA Times An inside look at Greg Bautzer, 'The Man Who Seduced Hollywood'](_blank)
/ref> After becoming established in Hollywood, Bautzer was engaged to actresses Barbara Payton
Barbara Lee Payton (née Redfield; November 16, 1927 – May 8, 1967) was an American film actress best known for her stormy social life and battles with alcohol abuse and drug addiction. Her life has been the subject of several books, includi ...
, Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the ''Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing C ...
and Lana Turner
Julia Jean "Lana" Turner ( ; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. ...
. Turner was only 16 when she and Bautzer started to date. He had another brief marriage to actress Buff Cobb
Buff Cobb (born Patrizia Cobb Chapman, October 19, 1927 – July 12, 2010)Hevesi, Dennis ''The New York Times'', July 21, 2010. was an Italian-born American actress and, with then-husband Mike Wallace, host of one of television's first talk-sho ...
, but the couple divorced after six months.[ Additional, July 21, 2010.]
Bautzer's best known romance was with actress Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 190? was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion-picture cont ...
. Their four-year relationship was reportedly on and off, as well as publicly heated at times, with Bautzer seen by many as Crawford's "escort".
On June 10, 1956, Bautzer married actress Dana Wynter
Dana Wynter (born Dagmar Winter; 8 June 19315 May 2011) was a German-born British actress, who was raised in the United Kingdom and southern Africa. She appeared in film and television for more than 40 years, beginning in the 1950s. Her best-kn ...
. They had one son, Mark Ragan Bautzer. The couple divorced in 1981.
The last of Bautzer's four wives, and his surviving widow, was Nicola Schenck Dantine, the daughter of film mogul Nicholas Schenck
Nicholas M. Schenck (14 November 1880, Rybinsk, Russian Empire, Russia – 4 March 1969, Florida) was a Russian-American Studio executive, film studio executive and businessman.
Biography Early life
One of seven children, Schenck was born t ...
and an actress also known as Niki Dantine.
Death
Bautzer died of heart failure at his Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...
home on October 26, 1987, at the age of 76. He is interred at Westwood Memorial Park
Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary is a cemetery and mortuary located in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. It includes a crematory for cremation services. Its location is at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood, with an entr ...
.
See also
* Ernest Del
References
External links
Greg Bautzer Timeline
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bautzer, Greg
1911 births
1987 deaths
Lawyers from Beverly Hills, California
Lawyers from Los Angeles
20th-century American lawyers
American entertainment lawyers
Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery