PASTERNAK, JOSEPH

PASTERNAK, JOSEPH (1901–1991), U.S. film producer. Pasternak, who was born in Szilagy-Somlyo, Hungary, immigrated to the United States in 1921, and two years later began working in films. By the end of the 1920s he was a producer for Universal Pictures in Central Europe. From 1936 he produced more than 100 films in the United States, always light comedy musicals. These include Three Smart Girls (Oscar nomination for Best Picture, 1936) with Deanna Durbin – the first of 10 films she made for Pasternak, including 100 Men and a Girl (Oscar nomination for Best Picture, 1937) and It Started with Eve (1941); movies that starred Mario Lanza; Destry Rides Again, with Marlene Dietrich (1939); Anchors Aweigh, with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly (Oscar nomination for Best Picture, 1945); In the Good Old Summertime, with Judy Garland (1949); The Merry Widow, with Lana Turner (1952); Love Me or Leave Me, with Doris Day and James Cagney (1955); Ten Thousand Bedrooms, with Dean Martin (1957); Ask Any Girl, with Shirley Maclaine (1959); Please Don't Eat the Daisies, with Doris Day (1960); Where the Boys Are, with George Hamilton (1960); The Courtship of Eddie's Father, with Glenn Ford (1963); Girl Happy (1965) and Spinout, with Elvis Presley (1966); Penelope, with Natalie Wood (1966); and The Sweet Ride, with Jacqueline Bisset (1968). Pasternak wrote an autobiography, Easy the Hard Way (1956), and a cookbook, Cooking with Love and Paprika (1966). (Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)