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Paul Kohner (born 29 May 1902 in Teplitz-Schoenau (Teplice), died 16 March 1988 in Los Angeles, California). The native of Bohemia in Austria-Hungary came to Hollywood in 1920 after having been a news reporter in Prague. He caught the attention of Carl Laemmle during an interview and was appointed head of Universal's European division.
In 1938 he opened the Paul Kohner Talent Agency and managed the careers of Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Maurice Chevalier, Billy Wilder, Liv Ullmann, Henry Fonda, David Niven, Erich von Stroheim and Ingmar Bergman.
Married to Lupita Tovar, he became the father of actress Susan Kohner and the grandfather of Chris and Paul Weitz, successful film directors in Hollywood, having helmed films such as American Pie and About a Boy.
Grandfather of Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz.
Children: actress Susan Kohner and producer Pancho Kohner.
According to film historian Scott MacQueen, Kohner was engaged in the late 1920s to Mary Philbin, star of Phantom of the Opera, The (1925) and Man Who Laughs, The (1928). Mary broke off the engagement at the request of her parents, as she was Irish Catholic and Kohner was a Czech Jew. While Kohner went on to have a successful marriage and career as a Hollywood agent, Philbin soon was through in pictures. Sadly, she never married and spent much of her life taking care of her aging parents, living with them in a house that she had purchased with her film earnings. After Kohner died in 1988, workers cleaning out his office at his agency found Mary's love letters close at hand in his desk drawer, after 60 years.