Edward Muhl
American film executive (1907–2001)
Edward Ellsworth Muhl (February 17, 1907 – April 22, 2001) was an American businessman and executive best known for serving as the head of production for Universal Pictures from 1953 until his retirement in 1973.
According to one writer, he played key roles in some of the studio's most important decisions. Muhl's contributions range from the technical (he was instrumental in persuading studio heads to shoot most of their films in Technicolor rather than the cheaper black-and-white) to the purely business (he made the deal that allowed MCA to purchase Universal in the early 1960s).
Career
Muhl began his career at Universal in 1927 in the cost accounting department. He became studio business manager and remained in the role until 1934 when he became head of the legal department, despite not being a lawyer. He moved into production in 1936. When William Goetz and Leo Spitz's International Pictures merged with Universal to form Universal-International in 1947, Muhl was appointed general manager of studio operations.
In 1953, Muhl was appointed general production executive under Goetz. Later that year he became vice president in charge of production for the studio, replacing Goetz and Spitz, who had run Universal for seven years.
Muhl oversaw a period of expansion for Universal.
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This entry incorporates text from “Edward Muhl” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.