Eddie Mannix

{{Infobox person

| name = Eddie Mannix

| image = 1935 Eddie Mannix.jpg

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption = Mannix in 1935

| birth_name = Joseph Edgar Allen John Mannix

| birth_date = {{birth date|1891|02|25|mf=yes}}

| birth_place = Fort Lee, New Jersey, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1963|08|30|1891|02|25|mf=yes}}

| death_place = Beverly Hills, California, U.S.

| resting_place = Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California

| other_names = Edgar Joseph Mannix

| occupation = Film studio executive, producer

| years_active =

| known_for =

| spouse = {{married|Bernice Fitzmaurice|1916|1938|end=d}}
{{married|Toni Mannix|1951}}

|}}

Joseph Edgar Allen John Mannix (February 25, 1891 – August 30, 1963) was an American film studio executive and producer. He is remembered for his work as a "fixer", who was paid to cover up Hollywood stars' often colorful private lives to protect their public image and profitability for the studio.{{cite web | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10750247/Mickey-Rooneys-amazing-sex-life.html | title=Mickey Rooney's amazing sex life | first=Gaby | last=Wood | work=The Telegraph | date=April 7, 2014 | access-date=February 1, 2015}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety-1963-09/page/n3/mode/1up?|access-date=18 August 2024|title=Eddie Mannix, 72, Vet Metro Topper, Dies in Beverly Hills After a Long Illness|date=4 September 1963|page=4}}

Among his most lasting contributions to Hollywood was a ledger he maintained that listed the costs and revenues of every MGM film produced from 1924 to 1962, an important reference for film historians.

Early life

Mannix was born in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the son of John and Lizzie (née Striker) Mannix. Christened Joseph Edgar Allen John Mannix, he used Edgar Joseph Mannix as his official name, but was known to most associates as Eddie. He was of Irish Catholic descent.

Career

After working as a bouncer and then treasurer of the Palisades Amusement Park, he became involved in motion picture exhibition, then was sent to Hollywood in 1925. He eventually worked his way up to general manager within MGM in the 1920s.{{cite book | last=Eyman | first=Scott | title=Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jid5xNh89wgC&pg=PA130 | date=23 June 2008 | publisher=Simon and Schuster | isbn=978-1-4391-0791-1 | page=130}}{{cite web | url=http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/you_must_remember_this/2015/11/eddie_mannix_mgm_s_fixer_and_the_scandal_of_patricia_douglas.html | work=Slate | title=The Fixer: MGM's Eddie Mannix and the lives he ruined | first=Karina | last=Longworth | date=November 6, 2015}}

The Eddie Mannix Ledger is in the Margaret Herrick Library at Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study.{{cite book |title = The E.J. Mannix ledger |date=1962 |oclc = 801258228}}{{cite journal|last1=Glancy|first1=H. Mark|title=MGM film grosses, 1924–1948: The Eddie Mannix Ledger|journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television|date=1992|volume=12|issue=2|pages=127–144|doi=10.1080/01439689200260081}}

Mannix left MGM in August 1958, after having suffered several heart attacks, although he stayed on as adviser, particularly in the area of industrial relations.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety211-1958-08/page/n10/mode/1up?|access-date=14 August 2024|title=After 40 years Mannix unloads|page=11|date=6 August 1958}}

Personal life

Mannix was married twice and had no children. He married Bernice Fitzmaurice in 1916. Mannix had numerous affairs during the marriage, but the couple remained married due to their Catholicism.{{cite book|last=Fleming|first=E. J.|title=The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine|year=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=0-786-45495-4|pages=24–25}} However, in late 1937, Bernice petitioned for divorce, claiming that Mannix physically abused her and citing the affairs. Before the divorce was officially filed, Bernice died in a car accident outside Palm Springs, California on November 18, 1937.{{harv|Fleming|2004|pp=173–174}}

After Bernice's death, Mannix began living with actress and Ziegfeld Follies dancer Toni Lanier, with whom he had been having an affair. They married in May 1951 and remained married until Mannix's death in 1963.{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/stream/boxofficejulsep183boxo#page/n419/mode/2up|title=Edgar Mannix is Dead' Retired MGM Veteran|journal=Motion Picture Herald|publisher=Associated Publications|date=September 9, 1963|access-date=March 23, 2016}}

Mannix was suspected of involvement in the death of actor George Reeves, the star of the television series Adventures of Superman.{{cite book|title=Signature Entertainment Memorabilia Auction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pum3Og4uerEC&pg=PA28|year=2006|publisher=Heritage Capital Corporation|isbn=978-1-59967-036-2|page=28}} Reeves had begun having an affair with Mannix's wife Toni in 1951.{{cite book|last=Tye|first=Larry|title=Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero|year=2013|publisher=Random House Trade Paperbacks|isbn=978-0-812-98077-6|page=153}} Mannix reportedly approved of the affair,Ward, Larry Thomas. Truth, Justice, & The American Way: The Life and Times of Noel Neill, The Original Lois Lane, Nicholas Lawrence Books, 2003. {{ISBN|0-9729466-0-8}}. p. 83 which was an open secret in Hollywood. Eddie Mannix was simultaneously having a long-term affair with a Japanese woman.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11335273/Was-the-original-Superman-typecast-to-death.html|title=Was the original Superman typecast to death?|last=Wood|first=Gaby|date=January 11, 2015|publisher=telegraph.co.uk|access-date=February 8, 2015}} As Mannix and his wife were Catholics who did not believe in divorce{{Citation needed|reason=Mannix was already divorced|date=August 2020}}, the arrangement continued for the next several years. Reeves, however, ended the affair in early 1959 and soon became engaged to socialite Leonore Lemmon, which devastated Toni. Reeves died of a gunshot wound to the head at his home on June 16, 1959. His death was ruled a suicide, but controversy has surrounded that ruling ever since. Rumors arose that Mannix, who was rumored to have had connections to organized crime, had arranged for Reeves to be murdered by a hitman.{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/nov/18/features.weekend1 | title=Who killed Superman? | date=November 18, 2006 | first=John | last=Patterson | work=The Guardian | access-date=February 8, 2015}} Kashner and Schoenberger's partially fictionalized biography Hollywood Kryptonite alleged, without citing any sources, that Toni Lanier Mannix, using her husband's criminal connections, ordered George Reeves' murder.{{cn|date=October 2023}}

Later years and death

Mannix suffered from a heart condition. By 1959, he had survived several heart attacks and used a wheelchair.

On August 30, 1963, he died of a heart attack at his Beverly Hills, California home at age 72.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19630831&id=zEtQAAAAIBAJ&pg=2866,4795435|title=End Of An Era|date=August 31, 1963|work=The Evening Independent|pages=3–A|access-date=February 8, 2015}} He is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, Los Angeles County.

In popular culture

Bob Hoskins portrayed Mannix in the 2006 biographical film Hollywoodland, based on the life and death of Adventures of Superman actor George Reeves, who is played in the film by Ben Affleck.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/10/josh-brolin-joins-clooney-in-coen-brothers-hail-caesar|title=Josh Brolin joins George Clooney for Coen brothers' Hail Caesar|last=Childs|first=Ben|date=June 10, 2014|publisher=theguardian.com|access-date=February 8, 2015}}
Eddie Mannix is Louis B. Mayer's right-hand man in When Garbo Talks! a 2010 world premiere musical at Long Beach Performing Arts Center where LB and Eddie trick Swedish director Mauritz Stiller into bringing Greta Garbo to Hollywood as a contract player for MGM.{{Cite web|url=http://whengarbotalks.com/index.html|title=When Garbo Talks}}{{cite web |url=http://whengarbotalks.com/external%20sites/When%20Garbo%20Talks!%20Comes%20To%20ICT,%20Previews%20Begin%2010%2012%202010%2009%2020.htm |title = When Garbo Talks! Comes To ICT, Previews Begin 10/12 2010/09/20}}
In June 2014, Universal Pictures announced they had acquired the rights to distribute Hail, Caesar!, a comedy film satirizing the American film industry of the 1950s, which was very loosely based on Mannix's career as a fixer. Hail, Caesar! was released on February 5, 2016.{{cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/article/2014/10/29/george-clooney-coen-brothers-hail-caesar-release|title=George Clooney's Coen brothers comedy 'Hail, Caesar!' gets February 2016 release|last=Blake|first=Emily|date=October 29, 2014|publisher=ew.com|access-date=February 8, 2015}} Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen both wrote and directed the film, and Josh Brolin portrayed Mannix.{{cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/article/2014/06/09/josh-brolin-to-star-with-george-clooney-in-coen-brothers-hail-caesar|title=Josh Brolin to star with George Clooney in Coen brothers' 'Hail, Caesar!'|last=Bahr|first=Lindsey|date=June 9, 2014|publisher=ew.com|access-date=February 8, 2015}} The film shows Mannix scrambling to solve the kidnapping of an A-list movie star, while battling to keep multiple thinly fictionalized send-ups of real Hollywood scandals of the era out of the tabloids. Behind it all, however, Mannix is depicted as a devout, if sinful and unconventional, Roman Catholic family man with two children and a doting homemaker wife (Alison Pill). His office door reveals his first name to be Edward.{{cn|date=August 2021}}
Eddie Mannix is a minor character in the Gore Vidal novel Myron.{{cn|date=August 2021}}