Producer Daniel Selznick passed away recently at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California. He was 88. He was the son of David O. Selznick, one of the most prominent and influential producers of his time, and Irene Mayer Selznick, the daughter of Louis B. Mayer. Mr. Mayer was a renowned producer and, in 1924, co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the most prestigious film studio during Hollywood’s Golden Era with ‘more stars than there are in heaven.’ Daniel Selznick was raised in a family steeped in film history and innovation whose life had been shaped by the legacy of his ancestors.

Born in Los Angeles in 1936 as Daniel Mayer Selznick to the famous film producer David O. Selznick (1902-1965) and theatrical producer Irene Mayer Selznick (1907-1990), Daniel grew up in Beverly Hills. His father was responsible for some of the most celebrated movies of the 1930s and 1940s. “Gone With the Wind” was his tour-de-force masterpiece, but he also produced films such as “What Price Hollywood?” (1932), “King Kong” (1933), “Anna Karenina” (1935), “The Garden of Allah” (1936), “A Star Is Born” (1937), “Rebecca” (1940), “Since You Went Away” (1944), and “Duel In the Sun” (1946).

Daniel’s mother, Irene Mayer Selznick, became a prominent figure in theater production when she separated from David O. Selznick in 1945 after a fifteen-year marriage. She produced Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947), directed by Elia Kazan, which put Marlon Brando on the map, and she received a Tony Award nomination for “The Chalk Garden” (1956).

Daniel Selznick moved toward producing and was involved in various capacities in different productions throughout the 1970s and 1980s. His TV movies include “Blood Feud” (1983), and documentaries “Reagan’s Way: Pathway to the Presidency” (1981) and the Peabody Award-winning “The Making of a Legend: ‘Gone With the Wind’” (1988), which he produced with his brother, film and television producer Lewis Jeffrey Selznick who died in 1997 at age 64. This documentary shows the obstacles their father had to overcome when he made the immortal screen classic. Daniel Selznick also produced a handful of other projects, including the mini-series “Hoover vs. the Kennedys: The Second Civil War” (1987).

He spent most of his professional career in and around the film industry, and served for four years as a production executive at Universal. He also served as the director of the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.

I had the honor of talking to Daniel Selznick in April 2010 at the Pinot Grill at the Los Angeles Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles after being introduced to him by a mutual friend, Hollywood casting agent Marvin Paige. Mr. Selznick and I had lunch at the outdoor restaurant between two symphony concerts he attended at the Music Center and he talked extensively about his family and their importance to the American film industry. It was an hour and a half I will never forget. He also told me he was working on his autobiography, titled “Walking With Kings,” which will be out next year. The book took him much longer to finish than expected.

The last time we spoke was on the phone, about three years ago.

According to his obituary, as published by the Los Angeles Times on August 2, 2024, Daniel Selznick left no immediate surviving close family members. That makes him one of Hollywood’s last direct connections to the industry’s founding families.