Austrians in Hollywood - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2014 - 70 Euro Cent

For many people, he is an unknown, but not the films that were created under his direction: "The Dances with the Wolf", "The Silence of the Lambs", "Platoon" or "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" are only a few from that. The new special stamp of the series "Austrians in Hollywood" is dedicated to the film producer Eric Pleskow, who helped shape Hollywood in the second half of the 20th century. Erich Pleskow was born on April 24, 1924 and spent his childhood in Vienna's 9th district. Only a few days before the outbreak of war, the Jewish merchant family managed to escape to the United States. There Pleskow first came into contact with the film. In 1943 he was called to military service, after the war he was transferred to Germany, where he was responsible as a film officer on the one hand for the reconstruction of Bavaria Studios and on the other hand for the denazification of German filmmakers. He became European distributor of United Artists Pictures and arranged co-productions with film greats such as Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, Pier Paolo Pasolini or Bernardo Bertolucci. Upon his return to the United States, he was appointed President of the Film Company in 1973. Under his direction, United Artists won a total of ten Oscars in the category "Best Film" - including "Das Appartement", "Stadtneurotiker" and "Rocky". When 1978 1978 United Artists was taken over by a financial firm, Pleskow left the film studio and founded with two employees the company "Orion Pictures", which he directed no less successful until 1992: films like "Amadeus", "Who dances with wolves" or " Terminator "attracted millions of viewers to the cinemas. Eric Pleskow was always ready to try new things and to leave well-tried paths - the love of film was always at the forefront of his decisions. That's exactly what his recipe for success was: He convinced United Artists in 1972 of Bertolucci's "The Last Tango in Paris", which became a scandal-hit blockbuster. He helped Czech director Miloš Forman with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" to make his breakthrough in Hollywood, making Anthony Hopkins, New Year's Eve Stallone and many others world-famous stars. Eric Pleskow, who never loved Hollywood, now lives in Connecticut. Every year he visits his hometown of Vienna, where he is part of the jury of the Austrian Film Fund and since 1998 president of the Viennale. The design of the special stamp comes from Kirsten Lubach, an artist and engraver, who not only made copper and steel engravings, but also jewelry engravings and drawings.