Paul Gregory

Paul Gregory (August 27, 1920 – December 25, 2015) was an American film, theatre and television producer. Early life Gregory was the son of a butcher and graduated from Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1938. Career Gregory went to Hollywood where he worked as a personal assistant for clients like Horace Heidt and Carmen Cavallaro. He became friends with actor Charles Laughton and organized a successful lecture tour for Laughton throughout the United States between 1949 and 1950. They earned $200,000 during this reading tour; the money worked as the basis for other projects. Gregory afterwards produced 17 Broadway plays during the 1950s and 1960s, among them The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, 3 for Tonight, The Marriage Go-Around and Lord Pengo. Gregory read the novel The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb and bought the film rights. He subsequently produced the thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955), directed by Laughton. While not a success in the 1950s, the film's reputation has grown, and by 2007 was considered by film critics as a masterpiece in which Gregory played an important role. His second and last movie as a producer was The Naked and the Dead (1958). As a television producer, he won an Emmy Award in 1955 for Best Television Adaptation for his television adaption of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.