He was born
Heinz Blanke in
Steglitz, Berlin, Germany, the son of painter
Wilhelm Blanke. He began his career as a film cutter in 1920. Blanke became an assistant to
Ernst Lubitsch and moved to Hollywood with him to make films with
Warner Bros. including
The Marriage Circle (1924). He produced nine films in his native Germany before emigrating to Hollywood. After Lubitsch left, Blanke stayed on as an assistant director. Among his Hollywood producing credits are:
Of Human Bondage (1946),
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and
The Fountainhead (1949). When the announced production of
The Life of Emile Zola (1937) came under fire from
Georg Gyssling, the
Nazi German consul to the United States (due to its portrayal of
Alfred Dreyfus, who was of Jewish descent), Blanke lied to him, telling him the
Dreyfus affair was only a small part of the film. The
Online Archive of California has a transcript of his oral recollections. == Partial filmography ==