born May 30, 1899, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.
died Sept. 14, 1936, Santa Monica, Calif.
U.S. film executive.
He suffered from health problems at a young age, and fearing his life would not be a long one, he threw himself into his career, joining Universal Pictures after completing high school. He soon became Universal's studio manager in Hollywood. Hired by MGM as head of production in 1925, he became known as the "boy wonder of Hollywood." He tightly controlled MGM's output by supervising script selection and final film editing, and he was responsible for the high quality of movies such as The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and Romeo and Juliet (1936) and for making stars of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald with Naughty Marietta (1935). Thalberg was one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.