Samuel G. Engel

Who was Samuel G. Engel?

Samuel G. Engel was a screenwriter and film producer from the 1930s through the 1960s. He wrote and produced such films as My Darling Clementine, Sitting Pretty, The Frogmen, Night and the City, and Daddy Long Legs.

Born in Woodridge, New York, Engel earned a degree in pharmacology at the Albany College of Pharmacy and owned a chain of drug stores in Manhattan with his brother Irving, before moving to Los Angeles in 1930. Engel signed on as an assistant director at Warner Bros. in 1933. Three years later he was hired to be a producer at 20th Century Fox. After serving with the OSS and US Navy in World War II, he continued as a film producer with 20th Century Fox until 1962.

Engel was president of the Screen Producers Guild from 1955 to 1958, and was instrumental in promoting its merger with the analogous guild of television producers to form the Producers Guild of America.