X-Nico

unusual facts about Universal Pictures



1939 in animation

September 9: Life Begins for Andy Panda, produced by Walter Lantz and released by Universal Pictures, marking the film debut of the cartoon character Andy Panda

Alpine Meadows, California

Alpine Meadows played the part of the fictional "Alpine College" in the 1966 Universal Pictures comedy film, Wild Wild Winter, with all of the exterior sequences being shot on location.

Antonio Moreno

Antonio Moreno is the granduncle of horror/fantasy author Nicholas Grabowsky, to which a related biography is slated for late 2009/early 2010 in conjunction with the release of the Creature From the Black Lagoon remake by Universal Pictures.

AXN Movies

The channel broadcasts films from the Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures libraries that focus on action and adventure themes.

Battling with Buffalo Bill

Battling with Buffalo Bill (1931) is a Universal Pictures movie serial based on the book The Great West That Was by William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, which had also been used as the inspiration for the studio's highly successful 1930 serial The Indians Are Coming.

Blackstreet

The original group released their first single in 1993, on the soundtrack to the Universal Pictures comedy CB4 (starring Chris Rock) titled "Baby Be Mine", featuring Joseph Stonestreet on lead, produced by Teddy Riley, and written by Teddy Riley and Joseph Stonestreet.

Bobby Cohen

After leaving Red Wagon, Cohen went on to produce such films as Definitely Maybe for Working Title/Universal Pictures and Revolutionary Road for Dreamworks.

Can You Hear Their Voices?

Video came from The Plow That Broke the Plains by Pare Lorentz, Universal Pictures newsreels, Reaching for the Moon by Edmund Goulding, Champagne (film) by Alfred Hitchcock, and Rain for the Earth by Clair Laning/Works Progress Administration.

Charlotte Merriam

While visiting Universal Pictures in that year she was offered a part in a comedy series starring Eddie Lyons and Leo Moran.

Charlotte Milchard

She has also appeared in several films, most notably The Fourth Kind, with Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas and Will Patton for Universal Pictures and Gold Circle Films.

Christine Belford

There, at the suggestion of friend Carrie Snodgress, she auditioned at Universal Pictures, performing a scene from the film The Country Girl for talent head Monique James — Christine then received a seven-year acting contract from Universal Pictures.

David Bonneville

Bonneville has also worked for Raimondo Rezzonico Awarded producer Paulo Branco, Turner prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon, HanWay Films, Universal Pictures and at the BBC.

David Horvath

A full feature animated Uglydoll film is currently in development with Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures.

Dorothy Hart

In 1948, Hart made Larceny with Shelley Winters and The Countess of Monte Cristo with Sonja Henie, both for Universal Pictures.

Ferdinand Kingsley

In 2013, Kingsley played the part of murdered Jewish anarchist Joshua Bloom in the BBC period crime drama Ripper Street, and filmed prominent roles in Agatha Christie's Poirot: Elephants Can Remember, the BBC's feature film The Whale, and Universal Pictures' 2014 feature Dracula Untold.

Finnkino

In 2006, Finnkino took over Finnish theatrical distribution for films by United International Pictures' partner studios, Paramount Pictures (including films by DreamWorks) and Universal Pictures, after UIP decided to move its Finnish distribution base from Buena Vista International, which started distributing UIP's films in Finland in 2002 after UIP shut down its Finnish distribution offices.

Give Us Wings

After completing this film, Bobby Jordan left the Universal Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys series, and signed on to Monogram Pictures to costar with fellow Dead End Kid Leo Gorcey in the East Side Kids series.

Howard Drossin

His recent work includes: co-scoring with longtime collaborator RZA, The Man with the Iron Fists for Universal Pictures, starring Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu; several award-winning video game titles including Afro Samurai, Splatterhouse, and Baldur's Gate; a Super Bowl commercial; and orchestration on the Grammy-winning jazz record, A Tale of God’s Will.

Inspector Lestrade

Notably, Dennis Hoey played Lestrade in most of the Sherlock Holmes films from Universal Pictures starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes.

Jimmy Needles

Needles coached the Universal Pictures team to the AAU championship, and as a result, he was appointed as coach of the first U.S. Olympic basketball team, which competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

Julian Blaustein

He spent a year in flight training at the Randolph Air Force Base before heading to Hollywood, where he became a reader in the story department at Universal Pictures.

Keep 'Em Flying

However, the Academy attributed the song to another Universal Pictures release, Hellzapoppin', even though it was not used in that production.

Lime Grove Studios

The first film produced at the remodeled studio was the Walter Forde thriller Rome Express, which became one of the first British sound films to garner critical and financial success in the United States (where it was distributed by Universal Pictures).

Lois January

While on contract with Universal Pictures she continued to play heroine roles in westerns, and in 1937 she starred opposite Bob Baker in Courage of the West.

Mary Parent

In 2004, Parent and Scott Stuber were named Vice Chairman of Worldwide Production for Universal Pictures.

Merritt B. Gerstad

After beginning as a cinegrapher on films for Universal, he worked for MGM, working with director Tod Browning on (the lost) London After Midnight (1927) and Freaks (1932), and Sam Wood on the Marx Brothers A Night at the Opera (1935).

Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company

Created to challenge the attempted monopoly of the General Film Company, which was produced by the Motion Picture Patents Company, both Universal Pictures and the Mutual Film Corporation grew out of the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company.

Neil Linpow

Most notably he played the leading role of Riko in Universal Pictures War Games: At the End of the Day in 2010

Scott Stuber

Stuber was Co-President of production at Universal Pictures with Mary Parent and in 2004, Stuber and Parent were named Vice Chairman of Worldwide Production for Universal Pictures.

Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat

The short version, released on March 28, 1941 by Universal Pictures features no director credit (Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz claims to have directed the cartoon himself), with a story by Ben Hardaway, animation by Alex Lovy and Frank Tipper, and voice work by Mel Blanc.

Secret Beyond the Door

Secret Beyond the Door is a 1948 psychological thriller and modern updating of the Bluebeard fairytale, directed by Fritz Lang, produced by Lang's Diana Productions, and released by Universal Pictures.

The Flying Saucer

In 1953 the film was re-released in the USA by Realart Pictures Inc., on a double-bill with Atomic Monster, the retitled-reissue of Man Made Monster, originally released in 1941 by Universal Pictures.

The Gumps

Between 1923 and 1928, Universal Pictures produced at least four dozen Gumps two-reel comedies starring Joe Murphy (1877–1961), one of the original Keystone Cops, as Andy Gump, Fay Tincher as Min and Jack Morgan as Chester.

The Purge: Anarchy

On June 10, 2013 Universal Pictures and Jason Blum announced the development of the sequel, after the success of The Purge.

The Rhythm Boys

They appeared with the Whiteman orchestra in the film King of Jazz (Universal Pictures, 1930), in which they sang Mississippi Mud, So the Bluebirds and the Blackbirds Got Together, I'm a Fisherman, Bench in the Park, and Happy Feet.

Vittorio Moroni

Among the short films made, Eccesso di zelo (Too Much Zeal) (1997) won awards at many festivals - including the Nanni Moretti’s Sacher Silver Award and Universal Studios Award, which allowed Moroni to make a masterclass at the studios of Universal Pictures in Hollywood.

Will Vodery

His arrangements for the show were used again in the London production of the show (1928), and the first revival on Broadway (1932), as well as in both the Universal Pictures film version (1936), and the prologue to the part-talkie 1929 film version (also by Universal) of Edna Ferber's novel, on which the show is based.

William T. Kent

If he's remembered it's for the hilarious 'baby-bastard' sequence in Universal's early sound musical King of Jazz (1930).


see also

Alexx Calise

Her song, "Release Me" was also chosen as the title track for the film, "LA I Hate You", starring William Forsythe (actor), Malcolm McDowell and Deedee Pfieffer, which was distributed by Universal Pictures.

Brian David Price

He sold his first screenplay, "The Many Lives of Bobby Ivers" to Universal Pictures (Hal Lieberman, producer) while still a student at UCLA.

Darryl F. Zanuck

Screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas, story editor at Universal Pictures' New York office, stated that one of the stories Zanuck sent out to movie studios around this time was completely plagiarized from another author's work.

Don Coscarelli

At the age of nineteen, Coscarelli became the youngest director to have a feature film distributed by a major studio when he sold his independently produced and critically acclaimed drama, Jim the World's Greatest, to Universal Pictures.

Donna Wilkes

Her first role was the part of Meredith in the 1978 Universal Pictures film Almost Summer, which also starred Tim Matheson and Didi Conn, on which she earned a SAG card.

George Newell Armsby

He was associated throughout his business life with John Cheever Cowdin, with whom he ran Universal Pictures; they were also both involved in the formation of Transcontinental Air Transport, Inc., which was later a foundation of TWA.

J. Remington Wilde

His songs have also been in several films including the Universal Pictures 1990 release White Palace, starring Susan Sarandon and James Spader.

Man-Eaters of Kumaon

In 1946 Universal Pictures brought the rights to the book and made the film Man-Eater of Kumaon (1948).

Max Barry

Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to Company, which will be adapted by Steve Pink.

Nelson Woss

Nelson then went on to work for director Ivan Reitman's company Northern Lights, which, at the time, was based at Universal Pictures.

Rob Pearlstein

He has sold screenplays and television pilots to major studios and networks such as Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, and Lorne Michaels's Broadway Video Productions, and has written episodes for the NBC series Medium and the Fox series The Inside.

The Creation of the Humanoids

Jack Pierce was Universal Pictures' master makeup artist during all of the 1930s and most of the 1940s and created the iconic Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein makeups among many others.

The Reluctant Astronaut

Comedian Knotts won several Emmy Awards as small-town comic sheriff's deputy Barney Fife in the 1960-1968 television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show but left the show as a regular at the end of its fifth season (1964–1965) to pursue a career in feature films with Universal Pictures.