Arnold Laven came to Hollywood in his late teens, securing work in a series of menial studio jobs. After several years as a dialogue coach, Laven worked himself up the ladder to director, helming the melodramatic programmer Without Warning (1952). In the mid-1950s, Laven was associated with several large-budget films, notably Paul Newman's The Rack (1956); still, if the subject matter intrigued him he was willing to work on such second-echelon features as The Monster That Challenged the World (1957). Specializing in westerns in the 1960s, Laven was both producer and director of 1962's Geronimo, and was producer only on the 1969 Burt Lancaster oater The Scalphunters. Arnold Laven was also one of the staff producers of Four Star Productions, a thriving TV-series mill of the 1950s and 1960s.
by Hal Erickson
biography
