Harry Cohn

The Great Movie Star Maker

Harry Cohn co-founded Columbia Pictures Corporation with his brother Jack and ran the studio for more than thirty years. Harry had the reputation of being the most autocratic studio boss in film history and he ran Columbia like a one-man show.

Under Cohn’s leadership, Columbia, which became known worldwide as the “little giant of the major studios,” rose from a minor studio to one of Hollywood’s major production factories specializing in dramas, such as ON THE WATERFRONT, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and ALL THE KING’S MEN, many of which won multiple Academy Awards©. Cohn was also known as a great star-maker, demonstrated by his early signing of such future cinema icons as Barbara Stanwyck, Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford and James Stewart.