Daniel Mayer Selznick, a one-time television producer and preserver of film history who was also one of the last direct links to two of Hollywood’s most storied families, died Friday of natural causes. He was 88.
At the time of his death, Selznick was living in the Motion Picture Country Home, the home in Woodland Hills, California, for elderly entertainers in need maintained by the Motion Picture & Television Fund. The MPTF organization announced his death.
Born May 18, 1936, Selznick was the son of legendary “Gone With the Wind” film producer David O. Selznick and equally successful theater producer Irene Mayer Selznick, daughter of Hollywood founding father Louis B. Mayer. Growing up in Beverly Hills around entertainment industry royalty, he attended the George School and Harvard University as well as the University of Geneva and for graduate school, Brandeis University.
He spent most of his life working in and around entertainment, including four years as a Universal Studios production executive. In the 1970s and 80s, Selznick was a television producer; his credits include the TV movies “Night Drive” (1977) and “Reagan’s Way: Path to the Presidency” (1981).
Along with his brother, Jeffrey, he also produced the Peabody award-winning documentary “The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind,” about how his father’s most famous film came together.
Selznick also served for years as director of the Louis B. Mayer Foundation, which provides grants to both film preservation efforts and cancer research. He was also a longtime supporter of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, overseeing construction of the Louis B. Mayer theater on the organizations campus in 1967.
While a resident of the MPTF home himself, he wrote his memoir, “Walking With Kings,” set to be published in 2025 by Alfred Knopf.
Selznick had no immediate survivors; donations in his memory can be made to MPTF.