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Ross Hunter
This film producer, a former school teacher and actor, became widely known in the 1950s and '60s for a series of lush, glossy romances, many directed by Douglas Sirk and starring such icons as Lana Turner, Rock Hudson and Susan Hayward. His career was much more versatile than posterity will have it, though. After serving in the Army and teaching school, Hunter spent the mid-'40s as a contract actor at Columbia, appearing in such films as "Louisiana Hayride" (1944), "A Guy, a Gal and a Pal" (1945) and "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi" (1946). Neither Hunter nor Columbia's Harry Cohn were happy, and his association ended.