Kohner was born to a Jewish family[8][9] in Teplitz-Schönau, Austria-Hungary (now Teplice, Czech Republic).[10] His father was Julius "Kino" Kohner,[11] who managed the local movie theater and published a film industry newspaper, and his mother was Helene Kohner (née Beamt).[12] He had two brothers, Friedrich "Frederick" Kohner, a film and TV writer who created the character Gidget (based on his daughter, Kathy), and Walter Kohner,[13] a Hollywood agent whose wife, Hanna Kohner, in May 1953, was the first non-celebrity featured on the television show, This Is Your Life, where she was the first Holocaust survivor to talk about her experiences in concentration and death camps on television.[14][15]
Career
Producer
As a young man, Kohner worked as a news reporter at his father's magazine Internationale Filmschau, which focused on the film industry. He met Carl Laemmle during an interview in Karlovy Vary in 1920.[16] Laemmle was impressed by 18-year old Kohner and offered him a job.[17][18][19] Kohner decided to move to the United States.[20] Kohner started out as an office errand boy at Laemmle's company, Universal Pictures, in New York. There, he became friends with another young émigré working for Universal, William Wyler. He moved to Hollywood and worked his way up the studio system, working in positions at Universal like unit production supervisor as well as casting director. Because of his knowledge of film production and background in Germany, Kohner went on to head Universal Pictures' European production offices located in Berlin, Germany in the late 1920s.[5][10] Kohner moved back to the United States in the early 1930s.[21] He worked as a producer, responsible for shepherding many Universal Pictures films like the Lon Chaney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame,William Wyler's A House Divided that starred Walter Huston, among others.[5]
Kohner produced many alternate language versions of films that were often shot simultaneously with their English-language counterparts, sometimes shooting at night on the same sets, but with Spanish casts of actors and different costumes. Kohner's wife, Lupita Tovar, starred in some of these Spanish language film versions, including Drácula (1931).
Paul Kohner's office was on the Sunset Strip in a building owned by a partner of his, Stanley Bergerman, who was Carl Laemmle's son-in-law. The facade of the building, located across the street from the now-defunct restaurant, the Cock and Bull, can be glimpsed in the film The Strip (1951) starring Mickey Rooney.
In 1976, Kohner partnered with agent Michael Levy to form the Paul Kohner-Michael Levy Agency.[24]
From 1923 to 1927, Kohner was in a relationship with Mary Philbin. They became engaged in 1926, but never married due to the disapproval of Philbin's parents. It was rumored they were going to marry in June 1929, but it did not happen.[26] When Kohner died, he still had love letters Philbin had written to him in his possession. She had also kept his.[27][28]
Kohner and actress Lupita Tovar were married in Czechoslovakia on October 30, 1932, at Kohner's parents' home by a rabbi.[29]: 226–227
In 1936, the couple had a daughter, Susan Kohner, a film and television actress, and, in 1939, a son, Paul Julius "Pancho" Kohner Jr., later a director and producer.[30][31] The family lived for many years in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, near filmmaker Alexander Korda.[32][33] Their grandsons, Chris and Paul Weitz, are successful film directors. Kohner spoke six languages.[4]
1930: Oriente es Occidente (Universal) (Spanish language version of East Is West) – Producer
1931: Don Juan Diplomático (Universal) (Spanish language version of the English and French films, The Boudoir Diplomat and Boudoir Diplomatique) – Production supervisor
1931: Liebe auf Befehl (Universal) (German language version of the English and French films, The Boudoir Diplomat and Boudoir Diplomatique) – Production manager
1931: Resurrección (Mexican) (Spanish language version of A Woman's Resurrection) – Production supervisor
1931: El Tenorio del Harem (Universal) (Spanish language version of Arabian Knights) – Production supervisor
1931: Drácula (Universal) (Spanish language version of Dracula) – Associate producer
^Kohner, Hanna; Kohner, Walter; Kohner, Frederick (1984). Hanna and Walter: A Love Story (2008 ed.). New York: iUniverse. ISBN978-0-595-46598-9. OCLC745168573.
Kohner, Frederick. Der Zauberer vom Sunset Boulevard: ein Leben zwischen Film und Wirklichkeit. München, Zürich: Droemer-Knaur, 1974. ISBN978-3-426-05592-2OCLC707505221—Original publication in German
Kohner, Frederick. The Magician of Sunset Boulevard: The Improbable Life of Paul Kohner, Hollywood Agent. Palos Verdes, CA: Morgan Press, 1977. ISBN978-0-894-30004-2OCLC3508212
