Bernard Delfont

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

| name = The Lord Delfont

| image = Bernard Delfont in 1964.jpg

| caption = Lord Delfont in 1964

| birth_name = Boris Winogradsky

| birth_place = Tokmak, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1909|9|5|df=yes}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1994|7|28|1909|9|5}}

| death_place = Angmering, England

| resting_place =

| nationality = Russian (1909–1912)
British (1912–1994)

| other_names =

| spouse = {{marriage|Carole Lynne|1946}}

| children = 3

| relatives = Lew Grade (brother)
Leslie Grade (brother)
Michael Grade (nephew)

| awards = {{Unbulleted list|item_style=padding: 0.1em 0; line-height: 1.3em|Life peerage (1976)|Knight Bachelor (1974) }}

}}

Bernard Delfont, Baron Delfont (born Boris Winogradsky; 5 September 1909 – 28 July 1994) was a leading Russian-born British theatrical impresario.

Life and career

Delfont was born in Tokmak, Berdyansky Uyezd, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), the second son of Isaac and Olga Winogradsky, a Jewish family.{{Cite web |url=https://www.jewishlivesproject.com/profiles/bernard-delfont |title=Archived copy |access-date=2019-10-06 |archive-date=2019-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191006084208/https://www.jewishlivesproject.com/profiles/bernard-delfont |url-status=dead }} His brothers, Lew Grade and Leslie Grade, also entered show business and formed the Grade Organisation.{{cite news |title=Lady Delfont dies aged 89|url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/19590/lady-delfont-dies-aged-89 |work= The Stage |date=2008-01-21 |accessdate=2008-02-12}} Their sister, Rita Grade, later wrote a book about the family called My Fabulous Brothers.{{cn|date=May 2022}}

In 1912, the family moved to the East End of London and at age 12, Delfont left school and followed Lew into music halls and changed his name to Delfont to avoid confusion with his brother, forming a dance partnership with comic Hal Monty called The Delfont Boys. He later formed another dance partnership called Delfont & Toko. In 1937 he stopped dancing and again followed Lew in becoming an agent and impresario.

During World War II Delfont became involved in the theatre with a tour of Room for Two in 1941 and then started staging shows in London from 1942 with Jam Tomorrow at the St Martin's Theatre.{{cite magazine|magazine=Kine Weekly|date=13 February 1971|pages=3–6|title=The Derek Todd Interview|edition=Supplement to Kinematograph Weekly}} He entered theatrical management in 1949 and acquired theatres in the West End of London. He acquired the London Casino and converted the London Hippodrome into the Talk of the Town nightclub, bringing in entertainers such as Lena Horne, Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra, Eartha Kitt, Judy Garland, The Ink Spots, Sophie Tucker, Barbra Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr. and Laurel & Hardy{{Cite web|url=http://www.richardmmills.com/talk1.html|title=RICHARD M. MILLS - TALK OF THE TOWN|website=www.richardmmills.com}} and also secured the exclusive rights from Paul Derval to stage the Folies Bergère for the first time outside Paris. He also teamed up with former rival Val Parnell to acquire a lease on the Prince of Wales Theatre and stage shows at the London Palladium. He presented over 200 shows in London and New York City, including more than 50 musicals, such as the original productions of Little Me, Stop the World - I Want to Get Off, City Of Angels, Funny Girl and Sweet Charity. He also presented summer variety shows in over 20 towns across the UK, mainly seaside resorts.

In 1950, he became stage producer for a BBC summer variety show Carefree and soon after the launch of ITV, the variety show Bernard Delfont Presents was produced by Lew's Associated Television, which ran from 1956 to 1958. From 1959 to 1962, Bernard Delfont's Sunday Show was broadcast. Delfont was instrumental in bringing Morecambe & Wise to ITV in their first successful TV show, Two of a Kind (1961 to 1968). He also helped the careers of Tommy Steele, Danny La Rue, Norman Wisdom and Tommy Cooper.

By the 1960s, the brothers were all very successful and were said to have a "Gradopoly" over British popular entertainment, with Delfont the country's leading impresario; Leslie running the UK's biggest talent agency and Lew one of the major players in British commercial television. In 1967, the Grade Organisation was acquired by EMI for $21 million and Delfont and his brothers joined the EMI board.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=22 March 1967|page=1|title=EMI Buys Grade; Huge Talent Pool In $21-Mil Deal}} When Leslie fell ill, Delfont was asked to help out at the Grade Organisation. As part of the deal, he became the largest individual shareholder in EMI. In 1969 he became chief executive of Associated British Picture Corporation after it was acquired by EMI and was a board member for around 30 entertainment entities, including the Blackpool Tower Company. In 1970, Delfont sold his own Bernard Delfont Organisation to EMI for $192,000, which increased his future shareholding in EMI to a value of around $8 million.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=10 June 1970|page=3|title=EMI Buys Bernard Delfont Org From Impressario For $192,000 In Its Stock|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1970-06-10_259_4/page/2/mode/2up?view=theater|access-date=17 April 2024|via=Internet Archive}}

As head of EMI's leisure division, Delfont oversaw film production, including The Go-Between (1971), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Death on the Nile and The Deer Hunter (both 1978).{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-moguls-nat-cohen-part-four-cohen-vs-bryan-forbes-1969-71/|magazine=Filmink|access-date=24 January 2025|date=24 January 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Forgotten British Moguls – Nat Cohen Part Four: Cohen vs Bryan Forbes (1969-71)}} In that role he withdrew funding for the film Life of Brian in 1978 at the last moment owing to worries over the religious implications of the screenplay.{{cite news |last1=Barber |first1=Nicholas |title=How George Harrison – and a very naughty boy – saved British cinema |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/03/george-harrison-beatle-monty-python-life-of-brian-handmade-studios |accessdate=3 April 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=3 April 2019}}{{cite book|last=Wilmut|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Wilmut|year=1980 | title=From Fringe to Flying Circus | location= London | publisher=Eyre Methuen| isbn= 0-413-46950-6 | pages=247–250}} Delfont was also part of the decision to move into film distribution in the USA, with disastrous consequences for EMI Films.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-nat-cohen-part-five-1971-1988/|access-date=5 February 2025|date=5 February 2025|title=Forgotten British film moguls – Nat Cohen: Part Five (1971-1988)}} He later became Chief Executive of EMI in 1979.

In 1980, following the sale of EMI's leisure interests to Trust House Forte, he became chief executive of THF Leisure Division. In 1983, he headed a management buyout under First Leisure Corporation where he was chairman until 1988 and then president. In Blackpool, First Leisure owned all three of its piers (South Pier, Central Pier and North Pier).

He was an active supporter of the Variety Club of Great Britain and was a former president.{{cite web|website=Screenonline|title=Delfont, Lord Bernard (1909-1994)|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1140452/index.html|last=Vahimagi|first=Tise|access-date=25 February 2021}} He presented the annual Royal Variety Performance from 1958 to 1978, and saw its first television broadcast in 1960, which became a ratings hit.{{cite book|year=1998|title=The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia|publisher=Cambridge University Press| isbn=0-521-63099-1|page=390|editor=David Crystal|edition=Second}} He was also involved in other entertainment charities being life president of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund and president of the Entertainment Charities Fund from 1983 to 1991.

Delfont married the actress Carole Lynne in 1946.{{cite news |title=Lady Delfont |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/25/db2503.xml |work= The Daily Telegraph |date=2008-01-28 |accessdate=2008-02-12}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} They had one son (David) and two daughters (Susannah and Jennifer). He was knighted in 1974 and created a life peer as Baron Delfont of Stepney in Greater London on 29 June 1976.{{London Gazette |issue=46950 |date=1 July 1976 |page=9072}} He died from a heart attack at his Angmering home in Sussex, England.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=8 August 1994|page=78|title=Obituaries}}{{cite news |author1= |author-link1= |title=Lord Delfont, 84, Theatrical Producer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/29/arts/lord-delfont-84-theatrical-producer.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=22 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=29 July 1994 |page=B 8}}