Sam Goldwyn Jr was born in Los Angeles on September 7 1926, the son of the film mogul by his second wife, the actress Frances Howard. In later life he would live in his parents’ Beverly Hills home which, when he was a child, was the scene of memorable Hollywood parties. Katharine Hepburn once remarked: “You always knew where you stood in Hollywood by where you sat at the Goldywn table’’. There was no place set for Sam Jr, however; he ate in the kitchen with the cook. “People always say to me, it must have been wonderful coming from old Hollywood, with all those movie stars, but I never knew anyone,’’ he recalled. “I didn’t even know who Charlie Chaplin was. My parents really kept me away from it all.’’