---
name: "Robert Z. Leonard"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/robert-z-leonard"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "7 October 1889"
died: "27 August 1968"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-19T23:11:48.796749+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Robert Z. Leonard

Director. Born 7 October 1889 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Died 27 August 1968.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 7 October 1889, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- **Died:** 27 August 1968
- **Also known as:** Robert Zigler Leonard, Robert Leonard, Роберт З. Леонард, Bob Leonard
- **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Z._Leonard, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q269731, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0502752/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/93906

## Fi1m on Robert Z. Leonard

> Robert Z. Leonard spent more than thirty years at MGM putting the studio's money and its stars on screen in good order, and doing little else. The films are handsome, well cast and rarely his; *The Great Ziegfeld* shows both the gift and its limit.

Near the middle of *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936) a curtain rises on a staircase that keeps going up, dressed with more women and more satin than any Broadway stage could have held, while 'A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody' plays and plays. That is Robert Z. Leonard at his most himself. Give him Hunt Stromberg's money and a number to build and he will build it bigger than the man he is filming ever managed. Give him the 185 minutes of biography around it and he gets to them when he remembers. Lavish where it counts and slack everywhere else, we said of the film, and it will do for the career.

Leonard came to directing from acting, at Selig Polyscope in 1907 after abandoning law, and was directing by 1913. He spent 1915 to 1919 at Universal with Mae Murray, co-founded Tiffany Productions, and joined MGM in 1924, where he stayed for more than thirty years. There he made what the studio needed: musicals, light comedies, star vehicles and period adaptations. *The Divorcee* (1930) and *Dancing Lady* (1933) come from the early stretch; then the operettas, five in a row with Jeanette MacDonald and four with Nelson Eddy, *Maytime* (1937) among them. In 1940 he was brought in late on *Pride and Prejudice*, which is noted for playing Austen as screwball comedy. He left MGM in 1955 and made two more films by 1957.

The gift was management. Leonard was the director MGM sent when the production was large and the star was difficult, and the films show it: the frame is full, the performers stand where they can be seen, and nothing looks cheap. It is a real skill and it leaves almost no mark. Most critics have never put him near the front rank, and the musicals are commonly dismissed as decoration. We think that is half right. We were bored through long stretches of *Ziegfeld*, honestly and increasingly, and then Luise Rainer picked up a telephone and for a few minutes the film had a person in it rather than a staircase. That scene is the best case for him: he could tell what was worth watching, even if he could not always tell what was worth cutting.

Leonard himself said in 1935 that the director had begun as "a sort of adventurer-magician". By then he had been at MGM eleven years and was neither; he was the man who got the thing made. If you want to know what a studio director looked like when the studio was at full strength, start with *Ziegfeld*, keep a thumb near the fast-forward, and stop when the curtain goes up.

## Biography

Robert Z. Leonard (7 October 1889 – 27 August 1968) was an American film director, producer, actor and screenwriter. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he began his career in the theatre and entered the film industry as an actor around 1908 before turning to directing in 1913.

He spent much of his career at MGM, where he directed a series of successful musicals and dramas. His credits include *Dancing Lady* (1933), *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936), *Pride and Prejudice* (1940) and *In the Good Old Summertime* (1949). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for *The Divorcee* (1930) and *The Great Ziegfeld*, the latter of which won the award for Best Picture.

Leonard received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures. He was married to actress Mae Murray from 1918 to 1925 and to actress Gertrude Olmstead from 1926 until his death.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936), Fi1m 64, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-great-ziegfeld.md)

## Complete filmography (114)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Kelly and Me* (1957), Director
- *Beautiful But Dangerous* (1955), Director
- *The King's Thief* (1955), Director
- *Her Twelve Men* (1954), Director
- *The Great Diamond Robbery* (1954), Director
- *The Clown* (1953), Director
- *Everything I Have Is Yours* (1952), Director
- *Too Young to Kiss* (1951), Director
- *Grounds for Marriage* (1951), Director
- *Duchess of Idaho* (1950), Director
- *Nancy Goes to Rio* (1950), Director
- *In the Good Old Summertime* (1949), Director
- *The Bribe* (1949), Director
- *B.F.'s Daughter* (1948), Director
- *Cynthia* (1947), Director
- *The Secret Heart* (1946), Director
- *Week-End at the Waldorf* (1945), Director, Producer
- *Thrill of a Romance* (1945), Associate Producer
- *Marriage Is a Private Affair* (1944), Director
- *The Man from Down Under* (1943), Director, Producer
- *Stand by for Action* (1942), Director
- *We Were Dancing* (1942), Director
- *When Ladies Meet* (1941), Director, Producer
- *Ziegfeld Girl* (1941), Director
- *Third Finger, Left Hand* (1940), Director, Producer
- *Pride and Prejudice* (1940), Director
- *New Moon* (1940), Director, Producer
- *Broadway Serenade* (1939), Director, Producer
- *The Girl of the Golden West* (1938), Director
- *The Firefly* (1937), as Café Patron (uncredited) · Director, Producer
- *Maytime* (1937), Director, Producer
- *Piccadilly Jim* (1936), Director
- *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936), Director — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-great-ziegfeld.md)
- *Escapade* (1935), Producer, Director
- *After Office Hours* (1935), Director, Producer
- *Outcast Lady* (1934), Director, Producer
- *Dancing Lady* (1933), Director
- *Peg o' My Heart* (1933), Director, Producer
- *Strange Interlude* (1932), Director
- *Lovers Courageous* (1932), Director, Producer
- *Susan Lenox* (1931), Director, Producer
- *Five and Ten* (1931), Director
- *It's a Wise Child* (1931), Director, Producer
- *The Bachelor Father* (1931), Director, Producer
- *Let Us Be Gay* (1930), Director
- *In Gay Madrid* (1930), Director
- *The Divorcee* (1930), Director, Producer
- *Peacock Alley* (1930), Producer
- *Marianne* (1929), Director
- *A Lady of Chance* (1928), Director
- *The Cardboard Lover* (1928), Director
- *Baby Mine* (1928), Director, Producer
- *Tea For Three* (1927), Director, Producer
- *Adam and Evil* (1927), Director
- *The Demi-Bride* (1927), Director
- *A Little Journey* (1927), Director, Producer
- *The Waning Sex* (1926), Director
- *Mademoiselle Modiste* (1926), Director
- *Dance Madness* (1926), Director, Producer
- *Bright Lights* (1925), Director
- *Time, the Comedian* (1925), Director, Producer
- *Cheaper to Marry* (1925), Director
- *Love's Wilderness* (1924), Director
- *Circe the Enchantress* (1924), Director
- *Mademoiselle Midnight* (1924), Director, Producer
- *Fashion Row* (1923), Director, Producer
- *The French Doll* (1923), Director, Producer
- *Jazzmania* (1923), Director
- *Broadway Rose* (1922), Director
- *Fascination* (1922), Director, Producer
- *Peacock Alley* (1922), Director
- *Heedless Moths* (1921), Director, Writer
- *The Gilded Lily* (1921), Director
- *The Restless Sex* (1920), Director
- *April Folly* (1920), Director
- *The Miracle of Love* (1919), Director
- *The Way of a Woman* (1919), Director
- *The Delicious Little Devil* (1919), Director
- *The Big Little Person* (1919), Director
- *What Am I Bid?* (1919), Director
- *The Scarlet Shadow* (1919), Director
- *Danger, Go Slow* (1918), Writer, Director
- *Modern Love* (1918), Story, Director
- *Her Body in Bond* (1918), Director
- *Face Value* (1918), Director, Story
- *The Bride's Awakening* (1918), Director
- *Princess Virtue* (1917), Director
- *At First Sight* (1917), Director
- *The Primrose Ring* (1917), Director
- *A Mormon Maid* (1917), Director
- *On Record* (1917), Director
- *Life's Pendulum* (1917), as Bob · Director
- *The Plow Girl* (1916), Director
- *Little Eve Edgarton* (1916), Director, Writer
- *The Love Girl* (1916), Director, Writer
- *The Crippled Hand* (1916), as The Rich Man · Director
- *Secret Love* (1916), Writer, Director
- *Judge Not; or The Woman of Mona Diggings* (1915), Director, Scenario Writer
- *Heritage* (1915), as Big Bill McMahon (as Robert Leonard) · Story, Director
- *The Silent Command* (1915), as The Father (as Robert Leonard) · Writer, Director
- *The Master Key* (1914), as John Dore (as Bob Leonard) · Director, Screenplay
- *The Wall Between* (1914), as Mr. Smith · Director
- *The Little Sister* (1914), as The Detective
- *The Diamond Makers* (1913), as Detective Felix Westerley · Director
- *Sally Scrags, Housemaid* (1913), as Frank Norwood · Director
- *Robinson Crusoe* (1913), as Robinson Crusoe
- *Draga, the Gypsy* (1913), as Jack Harlow
- *Over the Hills* (1911), Actor
- *The Still Alarm* (1911), as Jock Manley
- *The Scarlet Letter* (1911), Actor
- *The Common Enemy* (1910), Actor
- *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* (1910), as The scarecrow
- *The Courtship of Miles Standish* (1910), Actor
- *In the Sultan's Power* (1909), Actor

## Gallery

- ![Robert Z. Leonard](https://film.one/media/person/1228884/gallery-daadb3edacfe.jpg) Robert Z. Leonard — Hartsook Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Robert_Z._Leonard_by_Hartsook_Photo%2C_1915.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Portrait of Robert Z. Leonard, filmmaker and actor (1926)](https://film.one/media/person/1228884/gallery-69ed414695ce.jpg) Portrait of Robert Z. Leonard, filmmaker and actor (1926) — Unknown artistUnknown artist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Robert_Z._Leonard%2C_portrait.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Robert Z. Leonard](https://film.one/media/person/1228884/gallery-c4bc22cc11fd.jpg) Robert Z. Leonard — Image via TMDB
- ![Robert Z. Leonard](https://film.one/media/person/1228884/gallery-08433e5e4717.jpg) Robert Z. Leonard — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated

- 1937: Best Director (nominated), for *The Great Ziegfeld*
- 1930: Best Director (nominated), for *The Divorcee*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/robert-z-leonard