Lee Sabinson

American theatrical producer who later worked as a film executive and occasional actor. A New York native, Sabinson attended City College of New York, then volunteered as a courier for the Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. On his return to America, he found work as a script reader at Columbia Pictures and MGM. In 1943 he produced "Counter-Attack," the first of a number of Broadway plays and musicals, the most successful of which was "Finian's Rainbow." Blacklisted in the 1950s Red Scare, Sabinson went to England for several years. When he returned, he took an executive job with Columbia Pictures. He worked for various studios as a production executive for the remainder of his career. He died from complications of pneumonia in 1991.