Paul Bern

German-American film producer, director and screen writer. In the U.S. from childhood, he was educated in N.Y. public schools and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Between 1911 to 1915, he was active in the theater as an actor, stage manager and producer, becoming known as a highly observant intellectual in the industry. He started in films as a cutter, a screen writer and director and by 1926, had risen to executive production assistant for MGM, supervising all of Garbo’s MGM films. On 2 July 1932, at age 42, he married 21-year-old Jean Harlow. Two months later, on 5 September 1932, he shot himself in her bedroom in Beverly Hills, creating a major scandal. The official cause of death was suicide and the potentially scandalous circumstances surrounding the death were concealed for a long time by MGM, trying to protect Harlow's reputation. For years afterward, darker rumors circulated that Bern may have been murdered, or that, unable to sexually perform, he had used a dildo. The night he died, his former common-law wife had allegedly visited his home, and a few days after his death, she committed suicide. Link to Wikipedia biography