William Edwin Self

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William Edwin Self
Born(1921-06-21)June 21, 1921
Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
DiedNovember 15, 2010(2010-11-15) (aged 89)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actor
  • director
  • producer
Years active1945–2012
SpouseMargaret Flynn (1941–2007) (her death)
ChildrenTwo

William Edwin Self (June 21, 1921 – November 15, 2010) was an American television and film producer who began his career as an actor.

Early life and education

Self was born at

Miami Valley Hospital[citation needed] in Dayton, Ohio.[1] During his youth, he lived in Dayton, Akron, Chicago, and Milwaukee. He graduated from Dayton's Roosevelt High School in 1939.[citation needed
]

Self's father, Edwin Byron Self, worked as an Advertising Manager at the Dayton Rubber Manufacturing Company, Akron Rubber Company, Miller Brewing Company, and Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. Edwin Self wrote a novel, Limbo City (1949), and at least three plays which opened on Broadway: Junk (1927) starring Sydney Greenstreet,[2] Two Strange Women(1933), and The Distant City (1941). His play, The Lady and the Clown, starring Estelle Winwood, opened in 1944 at the Civic Theatre in Chicago with William Self playing a small part. [citation needed] Edwin and Elizabeth (Elsie) Fundus Self, a homemaker, had two children: William and Jean LaVerne Self (later Bright).

From childhood, Self has had "enthusiasms," keen interests that started when he was young and had continued throughout his life. Some of these interests had resulted in important connections and personal friendships. Self's fascination with

idol in his casket on screen. Valentino stayed in Self's mind. He saw all the movies and read all the books he could find. As an adult, he became friends with Valentino's personal manager, George Ullman; one of Valentino's best friends, Robert Florey; as well as with Valentino's brother, Alberto.[citation needed
]

It was also show business that led Self to become an accomplished tennis player. In 1932, age eleven, his parents took him to New York to see a Broadway production of Show Boat. Self's father pointed out tennis champion Bill Tilden in the lobby, telling him that Tilden was the greatest living tennis player. Self did not know anything about tennis, but he was impressed. He asked Tilden to sign his program. Back in Dayton, Self bought Tilden's book, Match Play and the Spin of the Ball,[3] and talked his parents into purchasing him a tennis racket. With time, he would become runner-up in the Wisconsin Junior Tennis Championship, represent Wisconsin on the Junior Davis Cup team and, in 1945, win The Wisconsin State Men's Championship. Self played Varsity tennis at the University of Chicago and in his Senior Year was elected Captain of the team. When he came to Los Angeles in 1944, as an unknown and untried actor, his skill at tennis allowed him to make important contacts. He regularly played with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, and Jack L. Warner, among other Hollywood notables. He also became friends with and played Bill Tilden.[citation needed]

One of Self's favorite hobbies was magic. When he was thirteen years old, he won a citywide contest, mounted by the renowned magician

The Magic Castle, a professional magician's club in Hollywood. In later years he became a close friend of Howard Thurston's daughter, Jane, who had appeared on stage with her father.[citation needed
]

Another film that sparked a lifelong interest was

Buffalo Bill Historical Center: the five-museum, five-football-fields-sized outgrowth of the original institution. Many of Oakley's grandnieces and nephews were his friends.[citation needed
]

While in high school, he decided to take up acting. In 1938, he appeared in Roosevelt High's Junior Class play, and in 1939 he was cast in the leading role of the Senior Class play, The Eyes of Tlaloc by Agnes Emelie Peterson. He also worked behind the scenes as electrician and

stage manager. Self's drama teacher, Bertha May Johns, was a great inspiration to him as well as to her other students.[citation needed
]

Self gave up drama while at the

Political Science.[citation needed
]

Career

Self graduated from the

cult classic, The Thing from Another World (1951).[4]
Between 1945 and 1952, he appeared in over thirty films.

In 1952, Self left acting to launch a lifelong career in television production. His first producing credit was Assistant to the Producer on the series China Smith starring Dan Duryea. From 1952 until 1956, Self was acting-producer (billed as Associate Producer)[5] and then Producer of the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. During this period, he produced two-hundred-eight half-hour episodes at fifty-two episodes per year. Many notable actors appeared as guest stars including Anthony Quinn, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Walter Brennan, Ronald Reagan, Rod Steiger, Charles Bronson, and James Dean.

Self moved on to produce

television series. The first pilot he produced was Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone
.

Self was hired in 1959 by

Twelve O'Clock High (1964–1967), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964–1968), Lost in Space (1965–1968), The Green Hornet (1966–1967), The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968–1970), Land of the Giants (1968–1970), and Room 222
(1969–1972).

Self's talents were rewarded by the studio as he was promoted progressively from his original position of

Executive Producer/Twentieth Century Fox Television (1962) to Vice-President/Twentieth Century Fox Television (1964) to President/Twentieth Century Fox Television (1968), and finally to Vice-President/Twentieth Century Fox Corporation.[8]

Self left Fox in 1975 to partner with

From Noon Till Three (1976) starring Charles Bronson
.

Self returned to CBS in 1977 as Vice-President/Head of the West Coast. A year later, he took on a new challenge when he accepted the position of Vice President in Charge of Television Movies and

Emmy nominations.[10]

Self returned to the feature film in 1982 when he was made President of CBS Theatrical Film Production. He served in this capacity for three years, supervising the making of ten movies including Target (1985) directed by Arthur Penn and starring Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon; Eleni (1985) directed by Peter Yates and starring Kate Nelligan and John Malkovich; Better Off Dead (1985) with John Cusack; and Turtle Diary (1985) starring Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley.

In 1985, when CBS decided to leave the feature film business, Self established the independent William Self Productions to develop both television and feature films. In partnership with Norman Rosemont, Self produced

The Tenth Man (1988) for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It starred Anthony Hopkins, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Derek Jacobi. He also partnered with Glenn Close in producing three television movies for Hallmark: Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991), Skylark (1993), and Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End (1999), all starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken
. Sarah, Plain and Tall received the highest rating of any Hallmark Hall of Fame to that date.

Personal life

Self married Margaret Lucille Flynn of

Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming
.

Self died on November 15, 2010, at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after suffering a heart attack four days earlier.

Filmography

As actor

As film producer

  • Ride the High Iron - (1956)
  • The Shootist - (1975)
  • From Noon Till Three
     - (1976)

As television producer

As director

  • The Secret (1954: Season 4, Episode 1 of The Schiltz Playhouse of Stars)
  • The Last Out (1955: Season 5, Episode 1 of The Schiltz Playhouse of Stars)
  • The Careless Cadet (1955: Season 5, Episode 9 of The Schiltz Playhouse of Stars)
  • The Night They Won the Oscar (1956: Season 6, Episode 7 of The Schiltz Playhouse of Stars)

References

  1. ^ Grimes, William (New York Times). "Dayton native who produced 'Peyton Place,' 'M*A*S*H dies'". Dayton Daily News. November 21, 2010. p. 27. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  2. ^ Spiro, J.S. (1944 12 28) "Milwaukee's William Self and His Tennis Racket in Hollywood Swing Now" The Milwaukee Journal
  3. ^ Tilden, Bill Match Play and the Spin of the Ball New York Lawn Tennis Association, 1925
  4. ^ Weaver, Tom Eye on Science Fiction; 20 Interviews with Classic SF and Horror Filmmakers (2003, pp. 269–301) Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company
  5. ^ "Interviews (2001) on Google Video". Video.google.com. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  6. ^ Haber, Deborah (1965 September) "The Studio that Came in from the Cold" Television Magazine (vol. XXII, no. 9, pp. 32–35; 61–64)
  7. ^ "20th Holds Vidpix Prod'n Lead" Daily Variety (1966 3 22) pp. 1;18
  8. ^ "Self Promoted to Presidency of 20th-Fox TV" Daily Variety (1968 11 1) pp. 1;26
  9. ^ Kaufman, Dave (1975 1 7) "Mike Frankovich, Bill Self Form Indie Prod'n Outfit for Theatrical Features, TV" Daily Variety, pp. 1;3
  10. ^ The Evolution of an Art Form; The Making of Motion Pictures for Television on CBS, (1982) CBS Television Network Sales/Marketing Services

External links

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