Vincent Sherman

Vincent Sherman, born Abraham Orovitz on July 16, 1906, in Vienna, Georgia, was an American actor and director whose career spanned Broadway, Hollywood film, and television. His father worked as a dry-goods salesman in Vienna, a small Georgia town where Sherman was raised. After graduating from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, he pursued a professional acting career, eventually traveling to New York City with the intention of selling a play.

Sherman made his Broadway debut in 1928 as a member of the ensemble in Eugene O'Neill's Marco Millions, launching a stage career that continued through 1936. His Broadway credits during that period included Volpone, Elizabeth the Queen, Paradise Lost, and Judgment Day, among other productions. He also appeared on screen during this phase of his career, taking a role in William Wyler's 1933 film Counsellor at Law, which starred John Barrymore.

In 1938, Sherman transitioned from acting to directing when he signed with Warner Bros. His first directorial effort was the 1939 horror film The Return of Doctor X, starring Humphrey Bogart. At the age of 99, Sherman recorded a director's commentary for the film's 2006 release. He went on to direct a range of notable Hollywood pictures, including Mr. Skeffington (1944), Nora Prentiss (1947), and The Young Philadelphians (1959). He directed Errol Flynn in Adventures of Don Juan (1949) and helmed three films featuring Joan Crawford: The Damned Don't Cry (1950), Harriet Craig (1950), and Goodbye, My Fancy (1951). Sherman documented his personal and professional relationships with Crawford and Rita Hayworth in his memoir, Studio Affairs: My Life as a Film Director, published by the University Press of Kentucky in 1996. He also had an on-set affair with Bette Davis. After his film career concluded, Sherman worked in television.

Sherman married Hedda Comorau in 1931, and the couple remained together until her death in 1984. They had two children, a son named Eric Sherman and a daughter named Hedwin Naimark. In the final decade of his life, Sherman was in a relationship with actress Francine York. In 2004, at age 97, he was the oldest of 21 individuals interviewed for the documentary Imaginary Witness, which chronicled six decades of filmmaking about the Holocaust. Sherman died on June 18, 2006, at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 99.