On this day in 1974, Samuel Goldwyn, one of the world’s greatest independent film producers, dies  at age 92.

Goldwyn was born Schmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Poland. At age 11, he journeyed alone to England, where he stayed with relatives and worked as a blacksmith’s helper. Two years after arriving in England, he emigrated alone and penniless to the United States, where he worked as an apprentice glovemaker for $3 a week and attended night school. He changed his name to Samuel Goldfish, and at age 18 he became a successful glove salesman.

In 1910, he married Blanche Lasky, the sister of vaudeville performer and producer Jesse L. Lasky, and when the glove industry took a dive two years later, Goldfish needed a better way to make a living. He entered the film business with his brother-in-law and Cecil B. De Mille. Their first picture, The Squaw Man (1914), was a resounding success, generating enough revenue to fund the making of some 20 more films the same year.

In 1916, their company merged with Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players, and Goldfish was named chairman of the board. His partners bought him out soon afterward, so Goldfish formed a partnership with Edgar Selwyn. They called the company Goldwyn, a blend of their surnames. In 1918, Goldfish legally changed his surname to Goldwyn. Though the men had successfully recruited famous stars and top writers, their company struggled, and in 1922 Goldwyn was edged out of the corporation, which later merged with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer productions to form MGM.

On his own, Goldwyn formed Samuel Goldwyn Productions in 1923 and thrived on his newfound independence. His only collaborator was his second wife, former Broadway actress Frances Howard, who was the mother of his son, independent producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr.

Stars launched under Goldwyn’s tutelage included Danny Kaye, Gary Cooper, Will Rogers, and Lucille Ball, and among the writers he employed were Robert Sherwood, Sinclair Lewis, and Ben Hecht. He received the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award during the 1946 Oscars for high quality of production, and won a Best Picture Oscar the same year for The Best Years of Our Lives. He was also known for his philanthropy and seemingly endless series of classic “Goldwynisms,” such as “A verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” and “Anyone seeing a psychiatrist should have his head examined.” He died in 1974.

(With thanks to History.com)