Closing Curtain
Skouras was brought low by the excesses on such films as Cleopatra (1963), where cost overruns set in motion a shareholder revolt that dethroned him. Darryl F. Zanuck was elected president of the company while Spyros worked in the role of chairman of the company for a number of years.
In parallel with his work in the film industry Skouras had, like many of his countrymen, invested in the shipping industry. Thus in the 1960s, his Prudential Lines owned seven ships, two tankers and five cargo ships, that cruised the world seas. In 1969, Prudential Lines bought out the Grace Lines. In the last years of his life, he disengaged from the movie world that he had served for so long, and spent more time on his various maritime projects, which were ultimately run by his son Spyros Skouras Jr.
Skouras died from a heart attack at the age of 78.
Read more about this topic: Spyros Skouras
Famous quotes containing the words closing and/or curtain:
“Our two eyes do not make our lot better; one serves us to see the good things, the other the evils of life. A lot of people have the bad habit of closing the first, and very few close the second.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)