Samuel Goldwyn Jr., 88, died on Friday, Jan. 9, 2015, according to a number of media accounts. “His death, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center [in Los Angeles], was caused by congestive heart failure, his son John said,” reported The New York Times.

According to Mike Flemming Jr. at Deadline, Tom Rothman said of Goldwyn ““People forget what a seminal figure Sam was, and how many filmmakers broke through because of him,” Rothman said. “There was Kenneth Branagh, Anthony Minghella, Ang Lee, David Lynch and John Sayles. Sam was a dose of class in a rough and tumble business. He had an unerring eye for quality, and wore being the son of Sam Goldwyn with dignity, and used his legacy to build a business.”

Fleming notes that Rothman, “a lawyer in New York who repped Jim Jarmusch when he made the deal with Goldwyn Jr. for ‘Stranger Than Paradise,’ was hired by Goldwyn Jr. to become president of The Goldwyn Company before moving on to Fox where he became the first president of Fox Searchlight.”

The New York Times notes, “As Hollywood dynasties go, the Goldwyns are among the few to have made a mark for successive generations. Samuel Goldwyn was the G in MGM. Sammy, as his son was known in his younger days, followed. Among the third generation’s accomplishments, John Goldwyn was vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, and another son, the actor Tony Goldwyn, is a star of the ABC series ‘Scandal’ [he plays President Grant] ”

Samuel Goldwyn Jr.’s father, who produced such classics as “Wuthering Heights (1939)” and “The Best Years of OUr Lives,” was also known for various errors he’d make in speaking. For example, he reportedly once said, “Too caustic? To hell with cost; we’ll make the picture anyway.”

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