Harold Hecht

Who was Harold Hecht?

Harold Hecht, born in New York City, was an American film producer.

Harold Hecht started his involvement with the New York stage at age 16. He appeared in numerous classical stage productions and later danced with the companies of the Metropolitan Opera and Martha Graham. Then in the 1930s he became a dance director on film productions.

Harold Hecht is probably best remembered today for his association with the actor Burt Lancaster, whom he "discovered" on the New York stage and brought to Hollywood, and with whom he formed an independent film production company, breaking from the then-powerful studio system. Their companies were Norma Productions, the Hecht-Lancaster company and, later with the writer-producer James Hill, Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions.

On his death, due to cancer, at his home in 1985, six days prior to his 78th birthday, he was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

His son, Ernest Hecht, has built up a family archive. His son Harold Hecht, Jr. became a television producer. His son Adam Hecht mysteriously vanished on July 7, 1989 from Beverly Hills, California at age 24 and has never been found. The story of Adam Hecht's disappearance was aired on the American television series Unsolved Mysteries in 1990. He also had a daughter, Rebecca Hecht.