Sidney Glazier
Sidney Glazier (May 29, 1916 – December 14, 2002) was an American film producer best known for The Producers.
Glazier was born in Philadelphia to Jewish immigrant parents from Minsk. He was the second of three sons; his elder brother Tom Glazer became a musician. His father died in the 1918 flu epidemic, and after his mother remarried, her new husband did not want the children in the house. The three boys were placed in the Hebrew Orphan Home in Philadelphia when Sidney was five. He later said the experience caused him great pain. He ran away after being sexually abused by a volunteer but returned when he had nowhere else to go. He later sought psychoanalysis to cope with those memories.
At 15, Glazier left the orphanage and worked as an usher at the Bijou theater, where he discovered that films could be a powerful escape from his troubled life. He also briefly worked as a part-time pimp for a local madam. He later managed the Mayfair Theater in Dayton, Ohio, and shortly before the U.S. entered World War II, he joined the Army Air Corps. He served as a second lieutenant in Australia and New Guinea, commanding 100 Black troops as part of the 380th Bombardment Group’s support unit.
After the war, Glazier moved to Manhattan. He became the night manager of the Apollo Bar and mingled with jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. He also tried different jobs, including a stint as an apprentice jeweler under the GI Bill, before leaving to become a bonds salesman for Israel. His fundraising success led to his role as executive director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation. He admired Eleanor Roosevelt greatly, and after she died in 1962, he began work on a documentary about her life. The Eleanor Roosevelt Story won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1965.
Glazier married Yungmei Tang in 1964, and they had a daughter named Karen in 1965.
Mel Brooks once pitched his project Springtime for Hitler to Glazier during a lunch in his office. Brooks had trouble getting producers to take the idea seriously. Glazier’s laughter convinced him to try, and he helped bring the project to life with Avco Embassy’s Joseph E. Levine. The Producers faced challenges during filming, with Brooks as a new director and Zero Mostel sometimes difficult. Glazier mediated tensions and kept the production on budget. Brooks later described Glazier as bright, warm, and fun-loving, a man who loved celebrating life.
The Producers initially received mixed reviews but grew into a cult classic. In 1996 it was added to the National Film Registry for its cultural significance. In 2001, Brooks thanked Glazier in his Tony Award speech for the Broadway adaptation, calling him the man who made it happen.
Glazier started his own distribution company, Universal Marion Corporation Pictures, and served as executive producer on films such as Take the Money and Run (1969), Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970), The Twelve Chairs (1970), and Glen and Randa (1971). The company handled U.S. distribution for Luis Buñuel’s Milky Way (1969) and Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970). In 1973 he produced the TV drama Catholics, which won a Peabody Award.
Brooks later asked Glazier to move to Hollywood, but Glazier preferred to stay in New York to be close to his daughter. He also invested in the doctor who discovered Viagra and maintained many friendships, never seeking the center of attention. He died at age 86 in a nursing home in Bennington, Vermont.
Brooks remembered him as an artist who cared about more than profits. Critics described him as demanding but charming, a symbol of New York’s lively, curious spirit.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:17 (CET).