Vincent Sherman, who died Sunday at 99, was a film director whose highlights include “Mr. Skeffington” (1944) and “The Hard Way” (1942). But it is for the salacious stories of his affairs with his leading ladies – Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, and Joan Crawford – that he will be most remembered.

Sherman told the stories of his affairs, conducted with the grudging consent of his wife of 53 years, in his 1996 memoir “Studio Affairs.” In the book, Sherman presented himself less as the Lothario behind the camera than as a wide-eyed innocent, as much the seducee as the seducer.

Bette Davis, he wrote, badgered him and made life on the set of “Mr. Skeffington” unbearable until he obliged her. With Joan Crawford, the affair greased the wheels of a working relationship that covered three films, “The Damned Don’t Cry” (1950),”Harriet Craig” (1950), and “Goodbye, My Fancy” (1951).

The memoir includes much additional pungent gossip, including accounts of acting in the 1933 film “Counselor At Law” with John Barrymore, who was “so drunk he had to read his lines off chalkboards, but there was something magical about him.” Likewise, when Sherman directed Errol Flynn in “The New Adventures of Don Juan” (1948), the star was so drunk much of the time that entire scenes had to be restaged, because Flynn couldn’t stand up.

Sherman was born Abram Orovitz in one of the few Jewish families in Vienna, Ga. After earning a law degree and working briefly as a reporter, he moved to New York in 1926 to pursue a career in acting. He chose the professional name “Vincent Sherman” at least in part because it was “the name that is probably hated more than any other in the South,” he told Variety in 1995.

He made several appearances on Broadway, and became a member of the left-wing Group Theater, an association that would eventually stifle his career during the McCarthy era.

In 1933, he moved to Hollywood, and after a few desultory roles, ended up as a writer specializing in rewriting old films. “I took a Paul Muni picture, ‘Dr. Socrates,’ changed the lead to a woman, got Kay Francis [to star] and we shipped it out as ‘King of the Underworld,'” he told the Toronto Star in 1997. Eventually, he signed a contract with Warner Bros. covering writing, acting, and directing.

Sherman’s directorial debut came in “The Return of Dr. X” (1939), a vampire thriller starring Humphrey Bogart. His real breakout came in “The Hard Way” (1943), a rags-to-riches potboiler starring Ida Lupino.

Although never artistically distinguished, Sherman was reliable and came to be known as a “women’s director” for his ability to get along with stars. In 1997, he described his occupation to the Los Angeles Times as “the care and feeding of superstars.”

Although he was never a communist, Sherman’s left-wing contacts made it hard for him to find work during the McCarthy era. Starting in the 1960s, he began directing television shows, including episodes of “77 Sunset Strip,” “The Waltons,” and “Matlock.” In recent years, living in a Malibu hilltop home with a commanding view of the Pacific, he was working on a script about George Washington and the French and Indian War.

“Of the 30 films that I made I really liked only 10 or 12 of them. The rest were what we called bread-and-butter pictures,” he said in the 1997 Toronto Star interview. He continued, “The days with Errol [Flynn] were a gas. You should have heard what he said when Warner asked him to tape in his codpiece! And Bette could swear like a stevedore. With Joan, everything was illusion – if we were shooting a party scene, the crew would have to dress up.”

Vincent Sherman
Born Abram Orvitz on July 16, 1906, in Vienna, Ga.; died June 18 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Los Angeles; survived by his son, a daughter, and several grandchildren.