Born in Trinidad, Colorado. A former stage actor, he entered films in the early 30s as a story reader and before long he was Irving Thalberg's personal assistant, producing RIFFRAFF, CAMILLE, and other MGM films with a screen credit of associate producer. After Thalberg's death in 1936, he produced several Warner Bros. films, again being nominally credited as associate producer, this time to Hal B. Wallis. In the mid-1940s he finally began getting full credit as producer on such films as IT'S A PLEASURE (1945), TOMORROW IS FOREVER (1946), THE OTHER LOVE (1947), ARCH OF TRIUMPH (1948), THE END OF THE AFFAIR (1955), THE SEVENTH SIN and RAINTREE COUNTY (both 1957), and MORE (1969).

Nominated for Best Picture 1939: DARK VICTORY - Producer at Warner Bros.  Nominated for Best Picture 1940: ALL THIS, AND HEAVEN TOO - Associate Producer at Warner Bros. (w. Jack L. Warner & Hal B. Wallis) 2 nominations