Darryl Francis Zanuck September 5 1902 December 22 1979 was an American film producer and studio executive he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era He played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors the length of his career was rivaled only by that of Adolph Zukor He produced three films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture during his tenure Zanuck was born in Wahoo Nebraska the son of Sarah Louise née Torpin who later married Charles Norton and Frank Harvey Zanuck who owned and operated a hotel in Wahoo He had an older brother Donald 18931903 who died in an accident when he was only 9 years old Zanuck was of partial Swiss descent and raised a Protestant At age six Zanuck and his mother moved to Los Angeles where the better climate could improve her poor health At age eight he found his first movie job as an extra but his disapproving father recalled him to Nebraska In 1917 despite being 15 he deceived a recruiter joined the United States Army and served in France with the Nebraska National Guard during World War I Upon returning to the US he worked in many parttime jobs while seeking work as a writer He found work producing movie plots and sold his first story in 1922 to William Russell and his second to Irving Thalberg Screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas story editor at Universal Pictures New York office stated that one of the stories Zanuck sent out to movie studios around this time was completely plagiarized from another authors work Zanuck then worked for Mack Sennett and FBO where he wrote the serials The Telephone Girl and The Leather Pushers and took that experience to Warner Bros where he wrote stories for Rin Tin Tin and under a number of pseudonyms wrote over 40 scripts from 1924 to 1929 including Red Hot Tires 1925 and Old San Francisco 1927 He moved into management in 1929 and became head of production in 1931 In 1933 Zanuck left Warner Bros over a salary dispute with studio head Jack L Warner A few days later he partnered with Joseph Schenck to form 20th Century Pictures Inc with financial help from Josephs brother Nicholas Schenck and Louis B Mayer president and studio head of Loews Inc and its subsidiary MetroGoldwynMayer along with William Goetz and Raymond Griffith 20th Century released its material through United Artists During that short time 19331935 20th Century became the most successful independent movie studio of its time breaking boxoffice records with 18 of its 19 films all profitable including Clive of India Les Miserables and The House of Rothschild After a dispute with United Artists over stock ownership Schenck and Zanuck negotiated and used their studio to bring the bankrupt Fox studios in 1935 to create Twentieth CenturyFox Film Corporation Zanuck was Vice President of Production of this new studio and took a handson approach closely involving himself in scripts film editing and producing Source Article Darryl F Zanuck from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30
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