At about age 17, Saltzman joined a circus and travelled with them for some years. In 1932, Saltzman moved to
Paris to study political science and economics. However within a year, he was "hand-picking talent for 40 two-a-day vaudeville houses all over Europe." In 1942, Saltzman signed a booking contract with Fanchon & Marco Enterprises. Saltzman went to the West Coast to sign big picture names. Saltzman sought the
Ritz Brothers, but due to film commitments, they could not sign. In 1943, Saltzman was managing The Gilbert Brothers' Combined Circus. According to an advert, the 1943 season began 26 May in
Clifton, New Jersey, and was booked solid through the Eastern American states until mid-October. Shortly after World War II began, he enlisted with the
Royal Canadian Air Force in
Vancouver. which was initially focused on trying to mediate the
Chinese Civil War between the
Communist Party and the
Kuomintang. He eventually quit due to "east-west differences" which to him seemed "so hopeless". By February 1951 Mountie Enterprises Corporation and Saltzman's new company Rider Amusement Corporation reported brisk business, as both companies got contracts to install coin-operated hobby horses in major department stores in numerous American cities. Saltzman claimed to earn a day per hobby horse.(equivalent to $413.30 in 2023) He became production supervisor on
Robert Montgomery Presents and produced
Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion. He moved, what was by then his family of four, to the UK in the mid-1950s, where he again produced theatre. He entered the film business by producing
The Iron Petticoat (1956), a play adaptation. Saltzman started
Woodfall Film Productions with
Tony Richardson and
John Osborne, and produced other acclaimed
social realism dramas such as 1959's
Look Back in Anger and 1960's
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Film director
Anthony Mann noted the dichotomy in Saltzman's career: "Harry used to make great pictures; now he makes very successful ones. After all, you can't be an artist all your life." 1960, his film
The Entertainer was named one of 1960's ten best films by The New York Times' film critics, and nominated for 5
Oscars.
Laurence Olivier won the Oscar for Best Actor. It was also nominated for 3
Baftas. In early 1961, excited by reading the
James Bond novel
Goldfinger, he made a bid to land the film rights to the character. Jacqueline Saltzman founded
Danjaq, S.A. with Dana Broccoli and incorporated it on September 14, 1961. It was a
holding company responsible for the copyright and trademarks of James Bond on screen, and the parent company of
Eon Productions, which they also set up as a
film production company for the Bond films. The moniker Danjaq is a combination of the names of Broccoli's third wife and Saltzman's second (Dana and Jacqueline, respectively). In 1958, he had set up the production company Lowndes Productions, but he did not use it for film production until 1965, and used it for eight productions thereafter, among them his three
Harry Palmer films with
Michael Caine:
The Ipcress File (1965),
Funeral in Berlin (1966) and
Billion Dollar Brain (1967). The company's last production came out in 1988, and it was dissolved in 1992. However, by 1972 Saltzman sold off 370,500 shares of Technicolor stock for $7.6M to repay his loan from the Union Bank of Switzerland.
Film Bulletin also claimed that some of Saltzman's former allies in the 1970 proxy had forced Saltzman to sell the stocks — which they purchased — and were seeking to oust him from the Technicolor board. Saltzman filed several lawsuits against Technicolor executive board members, claiming conspiracy "seeking to retain his positions in the firm." Screenwriter
Tom Mankiewicz claims Technicolor was selling at $30 per share, when Saltzman took control of the company in 1970; it was selling at $8 a share by 1972, at the time Saltzman was ousted. At some point, Saltzman defaulted on the interest payments to the Swiss Bank. On April 24, 1978, Sir Patrick O'Connor of the British High Court ordered Saltzman to pay an American law firm () plus () in post-judgment interest and court costs. Saltzman had retained the firm to resolve his financial difficulties. Saltzman's productions in the 1970s also proved problematic. A science fiction musical,
Toomorrow starring
Olivia Newton-John, was withdrawn from release and resulted in several lawsuits. Also in 1970, Saltzman cancelled a planned film, several weeks before shooting was to begin, about the dancer
Vaslav Nijinsky, starring
Rudolf Nureyev. Director
Tony Richardson believed that Saltzman had overextended himself, and did not have the funds to make the film. Throughout the 1970s, Saltzman struggled to make a film of
The Micronauts — a "shrunken man", which was a science fiction story to have starred
Gregory Peck and
Lee Remick — investing much money into the doomed project, that was finally shelved in the late 1970s. Due to numerous financial difficulties, Saltzman sold his 50% stake in Danjaq to
United Artists Corporation in 1975. Subsequently, his health also declined and he became depressed. In 1980, Saltzman purchased the theatrical production company
H.M. Tennent Ltd., becoming its chairman. Saltzman all but retired from the movie business thereafter. He had long desired to produce a film on the life of
Vaslav Nijinsky, based on biographies, the rights to which he had acquired in the 1960s. He has an executive producer credit on the film
Nijinsky in 1980, and the 1988 British-Italian-Yugoslavian co-production
Time of the Gypsies. In 1992, Saltzman dissolved H.M. Tennant. ==Personal life==