Walter Mirisch was born and raised in New York City. He received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin in 1942 and attended graduate school in business administration at Harvard for one year. In 1943, he began working for the Skouras and Oriental Theatre Corporations, first as an usher, then at various ascending jobs in their theaters and exchanges.
With Fall Guy, in 1946, he began the production of his own films for Allied Artists, then a subsidiary of Monogram Pictures. Harold Mirisch, his brother, had earlier left RKO to take the position of vice-president of Monogram. In 1951, Walter Mirisch became an executive producer for the newly-independent Allied Artists; in 1952, Marvin Mirisch, a third brother, assumed the management of Allied Artists.
On September 1, 1957, the three brothers formed the Mirisch Corporation, an independent sponsor for films. Its only connection with a major studio was with United Artists, which distributed its films for a 30 percent fee. Harold Mirisch served as the new corporation's president, Walter Mirisch as vice-president in charge of production, and Marvin Mirisch as executive vice-president in charge of all business affairs. Their objective was to supply the film market with as many films of artistic merit as they could.
The Mirisch Corporation has been called “one of the most successful independent production groups.” By 1962, it had sponsored eighteen films which had grossed over $100 million, and by 1967 it had sponsored thirty-six films which had grossed over $250 million. The Mirisch Brothers had by then received fifty-six Academy Award nominations from which they had been voted seventeen awards. Walter Mirisch produced thirteen of these films and won an Academy Award for In the Heat of the Night (1967).
During these years, Walter Mirisch served as president of the Screen Producers Guild. Together with Frank Capra, MacDonald Carey, Stanley Kramer, and Robert Wise, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In February 1967, Walter Mirisch was named “Alumnus of the Year in Southern California” by the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association. On April 24, 1967, the Mirisch Corporation was named “Southern California's Outstanding Business Enterprise” by the National Association of Accountants. Walter Mirisch tied with Stanley Kramer for the Producers Guild feature film award in 1968.
On May 29, 1968, United Artists bought the Mirisch Corporation stock, agreeing to distribute thirty-two new films through 1974. After Harold Mirisch died of a heart attack in December 1968, Walter was elected president of the Mirisch Corporation, and Marvin became its board chairman and chief executive officer. By this time, the Mirisch Corporation had sponsored forty films which had won twenty-two Oscars.
