Daniel M. Selznick in Memoriam by Graeme Gillis (September 2024)

Last month we received the sad news that EST member and former Board Chair Daniel Selznick passed away at the Motion Picture Country Home & Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 88. (You can read the story in the LA Times here.)

Danny had a famous name - he was the son of movie producer David O. Selznick and theatre producer Irene Mayer Selznick, and grandson to another film legend, Louis B. Mayer - but he had his own success as a film executive at Universal and a Peabody-winning documentary producer. His connection to EST demonstrated his abiding love for theatre. He was a regular dramaturg at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, and wrote about theatre for the New York Times. 

Before he ever arrived at EST, he wrote admiringly of it in the Times, including a 1990 feature on up-and-coming EST directors Pam Berlin and Lisa Peterson, and a 1988 profile of Curt Dempster, "The Man Behind The Scenes At The Ensemble". He went on to direct at EST, including the 1997 Marathon production of When It Comes Too Early by John Ford Noonan, featuring Harris Yulin and Kathleen Chalfant. 

Danny joined the EST Board in the late 1990s, stepping up as Board Chair after the death of previous chair Jamie Hammerstein in 1999. He served through 2003, presiding in an era when EST saw the continued success of the Marathon, Obie recognition for Stephanie Berry's play The Shaneequa Chronicles, and the first flowering of the EST/Sloan Project. 

Denny Denniston, who was on the Board with Danny 25 years ago and remains on the Board today, said "Danny was a dedicated Board member. He cared a great deal about EST, and he was a valuable counsel to Curt." Danny's gentle, avuncular manner was an entertaining contrast with Curt, but even when they clashed or were at odds, his admiration for Curt and EST was plain. "I never got a sense they were going out to have dinner necessarily," Denny said, chuckling. "But I could also see that they were friends."

EST member and fellow Board member Ken Mandel agreed, pointing out that Danny frequently put his Hollywood connections to work for the theatre. "Danny had a rolodex unlike anybody else," Ken said. "He could call up anybody in show business and they would talk to him."

Following his tenure at EST, Danny returned to Los Angeles. During his time at the Motion Picture Home & Hospital, he wrote a memoir, Walking with Kings, which will be published next year by Alfred Knopf. In his obituary, the Home & Hospital residents and staff said they "will remember him for his intelligence, charm, sweetness, and generosity." So will EST.