CHARLES D. COBURN - DOCUMENT SIGNED 10/25/1946 CO-SIGNED BY: RICHARD HUNGATE - HFSID 287740

CHARLES COBURN
Signed agreement with David O. Selznick's production company to appear in two films, Little Women and The Paradine Case (Alfred Hitchcock, director)
Document signed: "Charles Coburn", 4 pages, 8½x11 (in presentation folder). Also signed "Richard Hungate". New York, N.Y., 1946 October 25. Agreement with Vanguard Films (of producer David O. Selznick) to appear in two movies, Little Women and The Paradine Case, to be produced concurrently during 1947. Coburn is scheduled to portray James Laurence in Little Women, and "Flaquer" in The Paradine Case. He is to be paid $3,284.25 per week until completion. Alfred Hitchcock is listed as director of The Paradine Case.Broadway actor, producer and director CHARLES COBURN (1877-1961), with his wife, Iva Wells, led a Shakespearean company, the Coburn Shakespeare Players, from 1906 to 1937. Only after her death did he close the company and move to Hollywood. Coburn did not appear in his first feature film (Of Human Hearts) until 1938, when he was 61. In 1940, he portrayed Dr. Henry Gordon, who unjustly amputated Drake McHugh's (Ronald Reagan) legs in Kings Row, resulting in the future President's greatest screen line (and title of his first autobiography): "Where's the rest of me?" Coburn was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (1941, The Devil and Miss Jones; 1943, The More the Merrier; 1946, The Green Years), winning in 1943. The films contracted here did not prove to be highlights of Coburn's career. Little Women was ultimately not produced by Selznick, rights being transferred instead to MGM and Coburn's "Mr. Laurence" character being written out of this 1949 film version. He did appear in a supporting role in The Paradine Case, but the film proved expensive to make and disappointing at the box office. As a result, producer Selznick became disenchanted with Alfred Hitchcock, and never worked with him again. RICHARD HUNGATE, a lawyer employed by producer David O. Selznick, became a partner of a private firm, Youngman, Hungate and Leopold in 1954. While Hungate was with the firm - he retired in 1980 - it represented Farah Fawcett, sued for breach of contract for leaving the cast of Charlie's Angels; and also Universal Studios, sued by Twentieth Century Fox and Lucas Films on the grounds that the TV series Battlestar Galactica (1978) was a copyright infringement on Star Wars. Both cases were ultimately settled out of court. Lightly toned. File holes at left edge. Staple holes at top edge. Corners lightly worn.Otherwise, fine condition.