Son of legendary independent Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn and a respected independent producer-distributor in his own right, Goldwyn began his career in England with the J. Arthur Rank Organization as a writer and associate producer after WWII. Recalled to Army service during the Korean War, he produced the award-winning documentary "Alliance for Peace" before forming Formosa Productions in 1955 and producing such films as "Man Without a Gun" (1955), "Proud Rebel" (1956) and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1960). In 1961 he made his directorial debut with the college youth film, "The Young Lovers" (1964) and during the 1970s produced the Chester Himes caper films, "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970) and "Come Back, Charleston Blue" (1972).

For his most recent production-distribution company, The Samuel Goldwyn Company (formed in 1979), he has produced "Mystic Pizza" (1988) and "Stella" (1990) and has distributed such on-the-cutting-edge, award-winning arthouse fare--by both established and first-time directors--as Bill Forsyth's "Gregory's Girl" (1981), Alex Cox's "Sid and Nancy" (1986), Stephen Frears' "Prick Up Your Ears" (1987), Robert Townsend's debut "Hollywood Shuffle" (1987), Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V" (1989), Charles Burnett's "To Sleep With Anger", David Lynch's "Wild at Heart", Luc Besson's "La Femme Nikita" (all 1990) and in 1991 Matty Rich's debut film "Straight Out of Brooklyn", John Sayles' "City of Hope" and Claude Chabrol's "Madame Bovary". Goldwyn subsequently enjoyed considerable success with Kenneth Branagh's production of "Much Ado About Nothing" and Ang Lee's charming low-budget comedy, "The Wedding Banquet" (both 1993).