Robert Z. Leonard
Robert Zigler Leonard (October 7, 1889 – August 27, 1968) was an American film director, actor, producer, and screenwriter.
Also recorded as Robert Leonard · Robert Zigler Leonard · Robert Z Leonard
Robert Z. Leonard

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research · Public domain
- Name
- Robert Z.
- Birth Name
- Robert Zigler Leonard
- Born
- 7 October 1889
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
- Died
- 27 August 1968
- Place of death
- Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
- Occupation
- Director, producer, actor, screenwriter
- Full name
- Robert Zigler Leonard.
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- film
- Honours
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Languages
- English
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Robert Zigler Leonard (October 7, 1889 – August 27, 1968) was an American film director, actor, producer, and screenwriter.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q269731 · wikipedia · Robert Z. Leonard
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Robert Z. Leonard • Birth Name — Robert Zigler Leonard • Born — 7 October 1889 • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Died — 27 August 1968 • Place of death — Beverly Hills, California, U.S. • Burial Place — Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, U.S. • Years Active — 1908–1957 • Occupation — Director, producer, actor, screenwriter
Biography
Biography
He was born in Chicago, Illinois. At one time, he was married to silent star Mae Murray with the two forming Tiffany Pictures to film eight motion pictures that were released by MGM. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for The Divorcee and The Great Ziegfeld. Both were nominated for Best Picture, and the latter won. Known by his nickname Pop, Leonard was brought in late by MGM as a reliable director who could get its Pride and Prejudice (1940), starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, onto the big screen. One of the more unusual credits in his filmography is the film noir thriller The Bribe (1949) with its sleazy settings, slippery characters, and steamy atmosphere. Robert Leonard died in 1968 in Beverly Hills, California of an aneurysm. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, near his wife Gertrude Olmstead.
Filmography
Filmography
• Illustration — The Love Girl (1916)
Director
Director
• Sally Scraggs, Housemaid (1913) • The Ruby Circle (1914) • The Master Key (1914) • Christmas Memories (1915) • Judge Not (1915) • The Crippled Hand (1916) • The Plow Girl (1916) • The Love Girl (1916) • Little Eve Edgarton (1916) • The Eagle's Wings (1916) • Secret Love (1916) • On Record (1917) • A Mormon Maid (1917) • The Primrose Ring (1917) • At First Sight (1917) • Princess Virtue (1917) • The Bride's Awakening (1918) • Danger, Go Slow (1918) • Her Body in Bond (1918) • Face Value (1918) • Modern Love (1918) • Big Little Person (1919) • The Miracle of Love (1919) • The Scarlet Shadow (1919) • The Delicious Little Devil (1919) • The Way of a Woman (1919) • What Am I Bid? (1919) • Stronger Than Death (1920) • April Folly (1920) • The Restless Sex (1920) • Heedless Moths (1921) • The Gilded Lily (1921) • Peacock Alley (1922) • Fascination (1922) • Broadway Rose (1922) • Jazzmania (1923) • The French Doll (1923) • Fashion Row (1923) • Love's Wilderness (1924) • Mademoiselle Midnight (1924) • Circe, the Enchantress (1924) • Cheaper to Marry (1925) • Time, the Comedian (1925) • Bright Lights (1925) • Dance Madness (1926) • Mademoiselle Modiste (1926) • The Waning Sex (1926) • A Little Journey (1927) • The Demi-Bride (1927) • Adam and Evil (1927) • Tea for Three (1927) • The Cardboard Lover (1928) • A Lady of Chance (1928) • Baby Mine (1928) • Marianne (1929, silent) • Marianne (1929, musical) • In Gay Madrid (1930) • Let Us Be Gay (1930) • The Divorcee (1930) • The Bachelor Father (1931) • Five and Ten (1931) • It's a Wise Child (1931) • Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931) • The Son-Daughter (1932) • Strange Interlude (1932) • Dancing Lady (1933) • When Ladies Meet (1933) • Peg o' My Heart (1933) • Outcast Lady (1934) • After Office Hours (1935) • Naughty Marietta (1935) • Escapade (1935) • A Tale of Two Cities (1935) (Uncredited fill-in director) • The Great Ziegfeld (1936) • Small Town Girl (1936) • Piccadilly Jim (1936) • The Firefly (1937) • Maytime (1937) • The Girl of the Golden West (1938) • Broadway Serenade (1939) • New Moon (1940) • Pride and Prejudice (1940) • Third Finger, Left Hand (1940) • Ziegfeld Girl (1941) • When Ladies Meet (1941) • Stand by for Action (1942) • We Were Dancing (1942) • The Man from Down Under (1943) • Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944) • Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) • The Secret Heart (1946) • Cynthia (1947) • B.F.'s Daughter (1948) • In the Good Old Summertime (1949) • The Bribe (1949) • Duchess of Idaho (1950) • Nancy Goes to Rio (1950) • Grounds for Marriage (1951) • Too Young to Kiss (1951) • Everything I Have Is Yours (1952) • The Clown (1953) • The Great Diamond Robbery (1953) • Her Twelve Men (1954) • Beautiful But Dangerous (1955) • The King's Thief (1955) (replaced Hugo Fregonese during filming) • Kelly and Me (1957)
Actor
Actor
• The Sea Urchin (1913) • Shon the Piper (1913) • Sally Scraggs, Housemaid (1913) • The Ruby Circle (1914) • Christmas Memories (1915) • The Crippled Hand (1916) • Married Flirts (1924) • Show People (1928) • The Firefly (1937) • Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945, cameo scene with Lucille Ball and Preston Foster)

The Master Key is a 1914 American film serial directed by Robert Z. Leonard. This is a newspaper advert.
Universal Film Manufacturing Co. · Library of Congress

Movie poster for the American film Aurora of the North (1914).
Universal · HA
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1968
Robert Z. Leonard died at Beverly Hills.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Chicago.
Birth place
Beverly Hills.
Death place
Legacy
On February 8, 1960, Robert Leonard received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the motion picture industry, at 6370 Hollywood Blvd. • Illustration — Robert Z. Leonard, costumed as a U.S. Army first lieutenant during the Civil War, pauses by a window in a scene still for the 1915 silent drama Betty's Dream Hero.
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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