James B. Harris: Producer

Production photos from “Spartacus” (1960).

James B. Harris was Kubrick’s producing partner from 1956 to 1962. Kubrick’s friend Alexander Singer introduced the two after the director had made “Killer’s Kiss.” Harris recalled: “He had it in him to become one of the world’s best directors. But he was only twenty-five, after all, and I told him he needed someone to raise financing, find a good story, professional actors and writers, so I suggested we become partners. And that’s how I became his producer, except that we had nothing to film!”

Together they made “The Killing” and “Lolita,” after which their partnership ended amicably. Harris wanted to direct his own films, and Kubrick encouraged him, saying: “You ought to be a good director, but you’ll never know if you don’t try. It’s a lonely job. We’ve enjoyed working together, we’ve never made a bad movie… You’ll never know complete satisfaction until you’ve tried your hand at directing.” Harris’s directorial debut was “The Bedford Incident (1965), and he went on to direct five other feature films.

Harris eloquently explains Kubrick’s perfectionism and intensity: “Stanley believed that you shouldn’t be inhibited by what people are going to think of you, whether they’re going to like you or not. For him, every single detail was extremely important and he was ready to give himself up totally to his goal—which was the movie— for you have to live with your work to the end of your life.”

He was born August 3, 1928, in New York and lives in Santa Monica, California.