Arnold Laven(1922-2009)
- Producer
- Director
- Script and Continuity Department
Laven, Jules V. Levy and
Arthur Gardner met in 1943 in the
First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Force. They were stationed at
the Hal Roach Studio in Culver City, California (with other notables
such as Capt. Ronald Reagan, Capt.
Clark Gable and Lt.
William Holden), making training
films. Levy, Gardner and Laven resolved that they would start their own
independent motion picture company after they got out of the Air Force;
all were discharged in 1945, but their company wasn't formed until 1951
(in the interim, Levy and Laven worked as script supervisors and
Gardner as an assistant director and production manager). The first
Levy-Gardner-Laven film was
Without Warning! (1952). In the
decades since they have produced dozens of additional features and
several TV series (including
The Rifleman (1958),
Law of the Plainsman (1959),
The Detectives (1959)
and The Big Valley (1965)).
