Steven Bach was senior vice-president and head of worldwide productions for United Artists studios. In Final Cut: Dreams And Disaster in the Making of Heaven’s Gate (1985), Bach chronicles his involvement in the troubled production of Heaven’s Gate (1980), a film widely considered to have been the decisive reason for the financial bankruptcy of United Artists. Bach is the author of The Life and Legend of Marlene Dietrich and Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart. He taught film studies at Columbia University and Bennington College. His biography of the Nazi-associated filmmaker, Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl (2007) overturns many of the claims Riefenstahl put forward in her self-defence regarding her contact with Hitler’s regime, and was named by the New York Times as one of the most notable books of 2007. Bach died after a brief illness in March of 2009. He was survived by his companion, Werner Rohr.
