{{short description|American attorney, film producer and talent agent}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}}
{{Infobox person | name= Charles K. Feldman | image= | birth_name = Charles Kenneth Gould | birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|04|26}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date ={{Death date and age|1968|05|25|1905|04|26}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. |spouse= {{marriage|Jean Howard|1935|1947|reason=divorced}}<ref name="TCM">{{cite web|title=Charles K. Feldman|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/60571%7C30512/Charles-K-Feldman/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616165817/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/60571%7C30512/Charles-K-Feldman/|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 16, 2012|website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=25 May 2016}}</ref><br />{{marriage|Clotilde Barot|April 1968}} |alma_mater=University of Michigan | occupation = Producer and celebrity agent | notable_works = ''The Glass Menagerie'', <br /> ''A Streetcar Named Desire'', <br /> ''The Seven Year Itch'' }}
'''Charles K. Feldman''' (April 26, 1905 – May 25, 1968) was a Hollywood attorney, film producer and talent agent who founded the Famous Artists talent agency. According to one obituary, Feldman disdained publicity. "Feldman was an enigma to Hollywood. No one knew what he was up to – from producing a film to packaging one for someone else."<ref name="new">{{cite news|title=C. K. FELDMAN, MOVIE MOGUL, DIES; AGED 63 |date=May 26, 1968|work=Chicago Tribune|id={{ProQuest|175763236}}}}</ref>
==Early life== Charles Kenneth Gould was born to a Jewish family<ref>[http://www.vanityfair.com/news/1991/04/jean-howard-photographic-memoir-hollywood ''Vanity Fair'': "Pictures of Jean" by Ben Brantley] February 3, 2014</ref><ref>[http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/greatf_16.html ''Jewish Telegraph'': "THE GREATEST EVER JEWISH FILMS Oy Oy Seven!] retrieved February 26, 2017</ref> in New York City on April 26, 1905.<ref name="celebrities in LA">{{cite book|last1=Ellenberger|first1=Allan R.|title=Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory|date=May 2001|publisher=McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=9780786409839|pages=126–127|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bOJCgAAQBAJ&dq=charles+kenneth+gould&pg=PA126}}</ref> His father was a diamond merchant who immigrated to New Jersey. Both of his parents, however, died of cancer<ref name="Jean">{{cite web|last1=Brantley|first1=Ben|title=Pictures of Jean|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/news/1991/04/jean-howard-photographic-memoir-hollywood|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=February 3, 2014 |access-date=24 May 2016}}</ref> and he was orphaned at age six, along with his five siblings.<ref name="LIFE">{{cite magazine|last1=Havemann|first1=Ernest|title=Packages of Stars: Agent Charles Feldman gambles on bundles of actors, directors, scripts|magazine=LIFE|date=17 Apr 1950|pages=107–116|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUkEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Packages%20of%20Stars%22%20Ernest%20Havemann&pg=PA39|access-date=24 May 2016}}</ref> He was taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Feldman at age seven.<ref name="minted style">{{cite news|last1=Biskind|first1=Peter|title=The Man Who Minted Style|agency=Vanity Fair|date=April 2003}}</ref> Feldman was from Bayonne, New Jersey and was a furniture-store owner.<ref name="Jean" /> A few years later, the Feldmans moved permanently to California.<ref name="minted style" />
==Career== Charles Feldman studied at the University of Michigan<ref name="chicago tribune 1968" /> and later became a lawyer, earning his degree from the University of Southern California. He earned money to put himself through college by working as a mail carrier and a cameraman in a movie studio.<ref name="LIFE" /> He became a lawyer for talent agencies,<ref name="chicago tribune 1968">{{cite news|title=C. K. Feldman, Movie Mogul, Dies; Aged 63: A Talent Agent Who Became Producer|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1968/05/26/page/72/article/c-k-feldman-movie-mogul-dies-aged-63|access-date=25 May 2016|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=May 26, 1968}}</ref> and by age 30, he had become known as a Hollywood attorney; however, he became an agent instead.<ref name="LIFE" />
===Agent=== In 1932, Feldman left his job as a lawyer and co-founded with Adeline Schulberg, the Schulberg-Feldman talent agency which was soon joined by Schulberg's brother Sam Jaffe and Noll Gurney.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VurpbRg7GRoC&dq=ad+schulberg&pg=PT299|first=Todd|last=McCarthy|title=Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood|pages=chapter 23|date=December 2007|publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic |isbn=9780802196408}}</ref><ref name="chicago tribune 1968" /><ref name="minted style" /> In 1933, Schulberg left to form her own agency and the company was renamed the '''Famous Artists Agency'''. Feldman combined his background as a lawyer with his celebrity connections to help find and contract jobs.<ref name="LIFE" /> Among his first clients were Charles Boyer and Joan Bennett.<ref name="minted style" /> Feldman's Famous Artists was bought by Ted Ashley's Ashley-Steiner agency in 1962<ref name="the agency"/> and renamed Ashley-Famous.
Feldman began using new tactics in his field. He would buy story ideas and contract them to unemployed writers to make into a screenplay.<ref name="LIFE" /> He would also negotiate one-picture deals for a star rather than a long-term studio contract, as was the custom, so clients could work at multiple studios simultaneously. Feldman also combined several clients into one package and sold them to a producer or studio as one unit.<ref name="questia">{{cite journal|last1=Kemper|first1=Tom|title=Collaborating Agent: Charles Feldman and Clients|issue=79|pages=27|url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-217811885/collaborating-agent-charles-feldman-and-clients|journal=Cineaction|access-date=25 May 2016|date=December 22, 2010}}</ref> Another tactic was the use of overlapping nonexclusive contracts with clients like Irene Dunne and Claudette Colbert,<ref name="the agency">{{cite book|last1=Rose|first1=Frank|title=The Agency: William Morris and the Hidden History of Show Business|date=1995|publisher=Harper Business|location=New York|isbn=9780887307492|page=104,263|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sKwDcGnGKj8C&dq=irene+dunne+and+claudette+colbert+charles+feldman&pg=PA104}}</ref> demonstrating flexible alternatives to the so-called iron-clad studio contract in the classical Hollywood era.<ref name="questia" />
In 1942, Feldman was in charge of the Hollywood Victory Caravan for Army and Navy Relief.<ref name="minted style" /> As an agent, he became friends with major Hollywood figures like Jack Warner, Sam Goldwyn,<ref name="LIFE" /> Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, and John Wayne, among others.<ref name="chicago tribune 1968" />
===Packaging=== In June 1942, Feldman signed Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott and John Wayne and presented them to Universal for ''Pittsburgh'' along with the script and director as a "package".<ref>{{cite news|date=June 4, 1942|title=SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|106422136}}}}</ref>
This idea was the beginning of Hollywood's "package deal".<ref name="LIFE" /> One of his greatest successes was ''The Bishop's Wife'' which was produced in 1948. He bought the rights to the book by Robert Nathan for $15,000 and sold the screenplay for $200,000.<ref name="LIFE" />
Feldman held considerable sway in the making of some films. It was Feldman who suggested to Jack Warner (as a friend) that he recut Howard Hawks's ''The Big Sleep'' (1946) and add scenes to enhance Lauren Bacall's performance,<ref name="NYtimes big sleep">{{cite news|last1=Grimes|first1=William|title=Mystery of 'The Big Sleep' Solved|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/09/movies/mystery-of-the-big-sleep-solved.html|access-date=25 May 2016|newspaper=The New York Times|date=9 Jan 1997}}</ref> which he felt was more or less a "bit part" in the 1945 cut.<ref name="film noir">{{cite book|last1=Irwin|first1=John T.|title=Unless the Threat of Death is Behind Them: Hard-boiled Fiction and Film Noir|date=2006|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=9780801884351|page=232|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ok093mTU4UMC&dq=%27bit+part%27+charles+feldman&pg=PA232|access-date=25 May 2016}}</ref>
===Charles K. Feldman Group Productions=== He later produced his own movies instead of selling the screenplays<ref name="LIFE" /> and created Charles K. Feldman Group Productions in 1945. In 1947, he announced a deal that his company would help make three films at Republic Pictures: Orson Welles's ''Macbeth'' (1948), Lewis Milestone's ''The Red Pony'' (1949) and Ben Hecht's ''The Shadow''.<ref name="proquest107976304">{{cite news|author=THOMAS F BRADY|date=Mar 28, 1947|title=WELLES PLANNING 'MACBETH' AS FILM|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|107976304}}}}</ref> At Republic he also helped produce ''Moonrise'' (1948).<ref>{{cite news|author=Frank Daugherty|date=Feb 20, 1948|title=Dane Clark in 'Moonrise' movie version|work=The Christian Science Monitor|id={{ProQuest|516152219}}}}</ref> ''The Shadow'' was to be produced through Kirk Douglas' Bryna Productions, with Douglas starring in dual roles of twin brothers, but the film was never made.<ref name="proquest107976304" /><ref name=":252">{{Cite web|title=Valley Times from North Hollywood, California on January 24, 1950 · 11|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/580099452/|access-date=2021-05-18|website=Newspapers.com|date=January 24, 1950}}</ref>
On March 1, 1948, Feldman filed a $1,000,000 damage lawsuit against ten people and companies associated with the production of the film ''Kiss the Blood Off My Hands'': Universal-International Pictures, Norma Productions, Eagle-Lion Films, Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster, Joan Fontaine, Richard Vernon, Gerald Butler, Phil Berg-Bert Allenberg (Berg was Fontaine's agent, who had little to do with the film but was reputable enough to attract attention to the suit), and Allan Collins (president of Curtis Brown Limited's American division, which sold the rights to the novel).<ref name=":1">"U's Feldman Demurrer Is Sustained by Judge", ''The Film Daily'' July 2nd 1948 p2</ref> Feldman claimed that his film production company, Charles K. Feldman Group Productions, owned the filming rights to Butler's novel ''Kiss the Blood Off My Hands'' and demanded that the picture's production be shut down. Feldman also claimed to have purchased the novel's rights from Eagle-Lion Films, whereas, in defense, Vernon claimed to have procured the rights directly from Butler (through Curtis Brown Limited).<ref name=":2">"Hollywood", ''The Film Daily'' March 4th 1948 p2</ref> Feldman may have been holding a grudge against Lancaster, who had been approached to co-star in his production of ''Red River'', right before its shooting began in September 1946.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California on September 5, 1946 · 14|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/380839680/|access-date=2021-04-14|website=Newspapers.com|date=September 5, 1946 |language=en}}</ref> At the time, Lancaster was wrapping up ''Desert Fury'' and was already booked to film two more films, ''Variety Girl'' and ''I Walk Alone'', back-to-back for Wallis at Paramount Studios. It is unknown under which circumstances he and his agent turned Feldman down, but Lancaster's part was quickly offered to Montgomery Clift. Universal-International Pictures proceeded with the production of ''Kiss the Blood Off My Hands'' as planned, paying little attention to the lawsuit, which was eventually sustained by Judge Stanley Barnes at the Los Angeles Superior Court on July 6, 1948, long after filming had wrapped up.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>[https://archive.org/details/variety171-1948-07 "U WINS 1ST ROUND IN FELDMAN 'BLOOD' FIGHT", ''Variety'' July 7th 1948 p 4]</ref>
When his company produced ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951) Feldman had to fight to protect the script from censorship.<ref>{{cite news|author=T. F. |date=May 28, 1950|title=THE HOLLYWOOD FILE|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|111449156}}}}</ref> He later produced ''The Seven Year Itch'' (1955)<ref name="Jean" /> starring Marilyn Monroe when he was her agent from 1951 to 1955.<ref name="Marilyn Monroe">{{cite book|last1=Spoto|first1=Donald|title=Marilyn Monroe: The Biography|publisher=Cooper Square Press|isbn=9780815411833|page=610|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r2W9SGUyRmgC&dq=Charles+K.+Feldman+bio&pg=PA632|access-date=25 May 2016|year=2001}}</ref> In 1956, he sold the filming rights of six books to 20th Century-Fox Films, including ''Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison'', ''The Wayward Bus'', ''Hilda Crane'' and ''Bernadine''.<ref>{{cite news|date=Sep 10, 1955|title=SIX BOOKS BOUGHT FOX FOR FILMS.|work=New York Times|id={{ProQuest|113253802}}}}</ref>
In 1960, Feldman acquired the film rights to ''Casino Royale'' following the death of Gregory Ratoff who had purchased film rights to the property from Ian Fleming in 1955.<ref>Benson, Raymond ''The James Bond Bedside Companion'' Crossroad Press, 2012</ref> A 1967 profile on Feldman said "he still sounds much like an agent when he talks."<ref name="joyce">{{cite news|title=Charles K. Feldman shows independence as producer|date=Jul 20, 1967|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|155747813}}}}</ref>
In the 1960s Feldman made a number of films to promote his mistress Capucine. These included ''North to Alaska'' and ''What's New Pussycat?''.<ref name="cap">{{cite magazine|date=23 August 2025|access-date=23 August 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|title=Not Quite Movie Stars: Capucine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/not-quite-movie-stars-capucine/}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1935 Feldman married actress Jean Howard. They fought frequently, and divorced in 1947; however, they remained good friends and even continued to share a house for some time.<ref name="LIFE" /><ref name="Jean" /> He also gave up gambling in 1947.<ref name="LIFE" />
Feldman's mistress for many years was Capucine.<ref name="cap"/>
Throughout his life, his biological siblings often sent him letters asking for money. Although he preferred to not have contact with them, he did send money and old clothes.<ref name="minted style" /> He married Clotilde Barot on April 14, 1968.<ref name="TCM" /> He died six weeks later of pancreatic cancer, on May 25, 1968.<ref name="Jean" /><ref name="celebrities in LA" /> No funeral was held,<ref name="chicago tribune 1968" /> and he was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.<ref name="celebrities in LA" />
==Filmography== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} *''The Lady Is Willing'' (1942) – producer *''The Spoilers'' (1942) – executive producer *''Pittsburgh'' (1942) – executive producer *''Follow the Boys'' (1944) – producer *''The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry'' (1945) – executive producer *''Red River'' (1948) – executive producer *''Moonrise'' (1948) – producer * Orson Welles's ''Macbeth'' (1948) – executive producer *''The Red Pony'' (1949) – executive producer *''The Glass Menagerie'' (1950) – producer *''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951) which was nominated for an Academy Award – producer *''The Seven Year Itch'' (1955) – producer *''North to Alaska'' (1960) – producer *''Walk on the Wild Side'' (1962) – producer *''The 7th Dawn'' (1964) – producer *''What's New Pussycat?'' (1965) – producer *''The Group'' (1966) – executive producer *''The Honey Pot'' (1967) – executive producer *''Casino Royale'' (1967) – producer {{div col end}}
===Unmade projects=== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} *''Mr Shadow'' (1950) – about twin magicians<ref>{{Cite news|author=Schallert, E.|title=Drama.|date=Jan 18, 1950|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|166022124}}}}</ref> *''Once There Was a Russian'' (1956)<ref>{{cite news|author=THOMAS M PRYOR Special to ''The New York Times''. |date=Nov 5, 1956|title=SPEWACK COMEDY BOUGHT FOR FILM.|work=New York Times|id={{ProQuest|113698543}}}}</ref> *''Cold Wind and the Warm'' (1958)<ref>{{cite news|author=S. Z. |date=Oct 21, 1958|title=PLAY BY BEHRMAN MAY BE A MOVIE.|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|114506448}}}}</ref> *''Mary Magdalene'' starring Capucine (1962)<ref name="paris">{{cite news|author=A.H. WEILER. |date=Feb 4, 1962|title=BY WAY OF REPORT.|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|115808108}}}}</ref> *''Voyage Out, Voyage In'' from a story by Irwin Shaw (1962)<ref name="paris"/> *''Fair Game'' (1962) from a story by Sam Locke<ref name="paris"/> *''Eternal Fire'' (1965)<ref>{{Cite news|author=Martin, B.|title=MOVIE CALL SHEET.|date=Apr 14, 1965|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|155153899}}}}</ref> *''Lot's Wife'' (1965) from a script by I. A. L. Diamond starring Leslie Caron and Warren Beatty<ref name="lot">{{Cite news|author=Martin, B.|title=Leslie Caron in 'Lot's Wife'.|date=Oct 4, 1965|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|155299962}}}}</ref> *''Take the Money and Run'' – announced for Feldman in 1965 and was directed by Woody Allen after his death.<ref name="lot"/> {{div col end}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Portal|Biography}} *{{IMDb name|271012 |Charles K. Feldman}} *{{Find a Grave|6503388}} *{{Cite archival metadata |author = Finding aid author: John N. Gillespie |title = Charles K. Feldman collection |url = http://archives.lib.byu.edu/repositories/14/resources/11220 |repository = L. Tom Perry Special Collections |location = Provo, Utah |date = 2013 |accessdate = May 16, 2016 }} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=MtgYBQAAQBAJ&dq=charles+k+feldman&pg=PA105 1951 Academy Award Nominations featuring Feldman's films]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Feldman, Charles K.}} Category:1905 births Category:1968 deaths Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:American talent agents Category:Bryna Productions people Category:Film producers from New York (state) Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Category:Lawyers from New York City Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:Jewish American film people Category:Jews from New York (state) Category:20th-century American Jews