Endre Bohem; Writer, Producer

Endre Bohem, a writer and producer who fled his native Hungary shortly after World War I because Jews weren’t permitted a college education, but 50 years later returned for what was believed the first joint film venture with an Iron Curtain country, has died.

Bohem, producer of Clint Eastwood’s first success, the television series “Rawhide,” was 89 when he died Saturday at home in Los Angeles.

In this country, he first became a scenarist and then a film producer. His early writing credits for the screen included the 1927 “Desert Night” which starred John Gilbert wearing an unprecedented all-white tuxedo.

Bohem worked for Eddie Manix at Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Harry Cohn at Columbia, where he produced short subjects, among them the Robert Benchley and “Passing Parade” series.

As a producer, he made “Alias Nick Beal,” “House of a Thousand Candles,” “The Redhead and the Cowboy,” “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” and several more.

His other TV series included “Revlon Mirror” and “Ford Theatre.”

In 1968, Bohem returned to Hungary for the first time since his youth, where he and the national Hugarofilm company produced “The Boys of Paul Street,” hailed as the first production between an American and Iron Curtain country.

The antiwar film, based on a book featuring a boy hero known in Hungary as well as Tom Sawyer is in the United States, was nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign picture.

Bohem is survived by his wife, Hilda, a son, daughter, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

At his request there were no services.