- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHarry Reginald Gröbel
- Nickname
- Reggie
- The oldest of three sons, Reginald LeBorg majored in political economy at the University of Austria and studied musical composition for a year at Arnold Schoenberg's Composition Seminar. His education completed, LeBorg entered his father's banking business and, acting as the senior LeBorg's representative, traveled to Prague, Hamburg and Paris to transact family business negotiations. During his two-year stay in Paris he studied at the Sorbonne. In the mid-'20s LeBorg traveled to New York to dispose of a collection of paintings on his father's behalf. Remaining in New York, he was employed by several banks and brokerage houses and at an advertising agency. The stock market crash of 1929 wiped out the LeBorg family fortune, and Reginald's interest in the financial world waned. He returned to Europe and his first love, the stage. He worked at the Max Reinhardt School in Vienna, and later devoted much of his time to directing operas and musical comedies for provincial houses throughout Central Europe. Arriving on the Hollywood scene in the early 1930s, LeBorg appeared as an extra in pictures at Paramount and Metro and later staged opera sequences in the Grace Moore hits One Night of Love (1934) and Love Me Forever (1935), as well as other films with operatic themes at Fox, Paramount and United Artists. After a number of second-unit assignments at MGM, Goldwyn and Selznick, LeBorg joined Universal, where he turned out band shorts. An 18-month hitch with the U.S. Army interrupted his Hollywood career, which resumed in 1943 with his return to Universal and his promotion to feature film director. He later worked in TV.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com>
- SpouseDelores Keith Ferguson(February 23, 1945 - ?) (her death, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsJulius D. GröbelRegina Joseph Burte
- Died while en route to an awards ceremony at which he was to be honored (Academy of Family Films & Family Television).
- Interviewed in Tom Weaver's book "Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers" (McFarland & Co., 2006).
- Studied art at the Sorbonne and acted at Max Reinhardt's Vienna drama school.
- Always, in my work, I ask myself the dramatic question, "Why?" Why does a character behave as he or she does?
- [In 1989, on modern movies] The salaries have gone crazy. And have you seen the credits on recent pictures? They last five minutes! The "gofer", the guy who brings you coffee, is credited. It's as if you buy a car, and everybody who worked on the car should get their name in there! And the bosses now know nothing about stories; they are lawyers. It's not the story they make--it's the deal they make.
- [About modern actors] The glamor is gone, and the situation has changed for the young people. In the '30s and '40s the young people had little to say; they were taken under contract, usually at $75 to $150 per week, with options. If they made two or three great pictures, perhaps these options changed. However, they did receive professional advice. They were groomed, told what clothes to wear, what parties to attend. But today, they are not taken under contract; they make one picture, and if the picture is good, they're a "star". They go around sloppy, in jeans and so forth--yet they are "stars". So the glamor is gone.
- [on Jungle Woman (1944)] It was an atrocious script, and a silly idea anyway. But, again, I was under contract. If I had refused it, I would have been suspended without pay, and I wouldn't have gotten ANYTHING good anymore. You had to play ball with the front office.
- [on Lon Chaney Jr.] I liked him personally, but I couldn't help him emotionally; he wanted to be bigger than his father.
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