Lester Cowan, 83; Movie Producer

Lester Cowan, an individualistic producer whose films depicted subjects ranging from the antics of W. C. Fields to the battlefield exploits of war correspondent Ernie Pyle, has died at his home in New York City.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that he died Sunday of an apparent heart attack at 83.

After studying at Stanford University, Cowan went to work in 1928 for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. There he wrote a book on the advent of sound films and was involved in the start of the Academy Awards. He served as executive secretary (now director) of the academy from 1931 to 1933.

In 1935 he turned to production and supervised the filming of John Ford’s “The Whole Town’s Talking,” which starred Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur.

Four years later he produced the first of his own films, “You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man” with Fields, and in 1940 made “My Little Chickadee,” which starred Fields and Mae West.

Earlier he had started a lecture series at USC believed to have been the first college course in film studies.

In 1942 he produced “Commandos Strike at Dawn,” an early look at occupied Europe. His other films of the 1940s included “Ladies in Retirement,” “Tomorrow the World,” “One Touch of Venus” and “Story of GI Joe,” based on Pyle’s war experiences.

Some of the films he didn’t make generated as much interest as the ones he did.

Over the years he contemplated, but never completed, film biographies of Simon Bolivar and Sun Yat-sen. He negotiated with William Saroyan in 1941 for film rights to “The Time of Your Life” but found Saroyan’s demands excessive.

(The picture eventually was produced in 1948 by William Cagney and starred his brother, James.)

In 1962 Cowan signed an agreement with a large Soviet studio to make a film of “Meeting at a Far Meridian,” a successful novel published in both countries. But what would have been the first joint film venture between the United States and the Soviet Union bogged down in technical difficulties.

Among Cowan’s last pictures was the 1953 “Main Street to Broadway,” a tale of the agonies of writing for the stage that featured Ethel and Lionel Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Henry Fonda, Tallulah Bankhead, Mary Martin and many other stars.

He is survived by his wife, Ann Ronell, two brothers and a sister.