Charles K. Feldman

American attorney, film producer and talent agent

Charles K. Feldman (April 26, 1905 – May 25, 1968) was a Hollywood attorney, film producer and talent agent who founded the Famous Artists talent agency. According to one obituary, Feldman disdained publicity. "Feldman was an enigma to Hollywood. No one knew what he was up to – from producing a film to packaging one for someone else."

Charles Kenneth Gould was born to a Jewish family in New York City on April 26, 1905. His father was a diamond merchant who immigrated to New Jersey. Both of his parents, however, died of cancer and he was orphaned at age six, along with his five siblings. He was taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Feldman at age seven. Feldman was from Bayonne, New Jersey and was a furniture store owner. and by age 30, he had become known as a Hollywood attorney; however, he became an agent instead. Another tactic was the use of overlapping nonexclusive contracts with clients like Irene Dunne and Claudette Colbert, demonstrating flexible alternatives to the so called iron clad studio contract in the classical Hollywood era. This idea was the beginning of Hollywood's "package deal". which he felt was more or less a "bit part" in the 1945 cut.

He later produced his own movies instead of selling the screenplays At Republic he also helped produce Moonrise (1948). The Shadow was to be produced through Kirk Douglas' Bryna Productions, with Douglas starring in dual roles of twin brothers, but the film was never made. On March 1, 1948, Feldman filled a $1,000,000 damage lawsuit against ten people and companies associated with the production of the film Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: Universal International Pictures, Norma Productions, Eagle Lion Films, Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster, Joan Fontaine, Richard Vernon, Gerald Butler, Phil Berg Bert Allenberg (Berg was Fontaine's agent, who had little to do with the film but was reputable enough to attract attention to the suit), and Allan Collins (president of Curtis Brown Limited's American division, which sold the rights to the novel). Feldman claimed that his film production company, Charles K. Feldman Group Productions, owned the filming rights to Butler's novel Kiss the Blood Off My Hands and demanded that the picture's production be shut down. Feldman also claimed to have purchased the novel's rights from Eagle Lion Films, whereas, in defense, Vernon claimed to have procured the rights directly from Butler (through Curtis Brown Limited). Feldman may have been holding a grudge against Lancaster, who had been approached to co star in his production of Red River, right before its shooting began in September 1946. At the time, Lancaster was wrapping up Desert Fury and was already booked to film two more films, Variety Girl and I Walk Alone, back to back for Wallis at Paramount Studios. It is unknown under which circumstances he and his agent turned Feldman down, but Lancaster's part was quickly offered to Montgomery Clift. Universal International Pictures proceeded with the production of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands as planned, paying little attention to the lawsuit, which was eventually sustained by Judge Stanley Barnes at the Los Angeles Superior Court on July 6, 1948, long after filming had wrapped up. When his company produced A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Feldman had to fight to protect the script from censorship. He later produced The Seven Year Itch (1955) In 1956, he sold the filming rights of six books to 20th Century Fox Films, including Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, The Wayward Bus, Hilda Crane and Bernadine. In 1960, Feldman acquired the film rights to Casino Royale following the death of Gregory Ratoff who had purchased film rights to the property from Ian Fleming in 1955. A 1967 profile on Feldman said "he still sounds much like an agent when he talks."