The son of Russian Jews who had settled in Germany, Alexander Salkind became one of the more high-profile international movie producers in the 1970s and 80s. His father (variously billed as Mikhail, Michel, Miguel and Michael) was a former lawyer turned movie producer who gave his son entree into show business. Fleeing the Nazis, the Salkinds eventually settled in Mexico City, where they continued to work in the Mexican film industry. The younger Salkind earned his first credit as solo producer on the Buster Keaton vehicle "El Moderno Barb-Azul/Boom in the Moon" (1943).

By the late 1950s, the