- Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director and producer. Spielberg is a three-time Academy Award winner and is the highest grossing filmmaker of all time, with an estimated net worth of $3 billion. As of 2006, "Premiere" listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the motion picture industry. "TIME" named him in the '100 Greatest People of the Century'. - George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is a four-time Academy Award nominated American film director, producer, and screenwriter famous for his epic "Star Wars" saga and Indiana Jones films — the latter a collaboration with his friend Steven Spielberg. He is one of American film industry's most financially successful independent directors and producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion. - Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (July 1882 - 31 January 1974) was an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning producer, also a well-known Hollywood motion picture producer and founding contributor of several motion picture studios. - Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was, in his time, an aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer and director, a playboy, an eccentric, and one of the wealthiest people in the world. He is famous for setting multiple, world air-speed records, building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules airplanes, producing the movies "Hell's Angels" and "The Outlaw", owning and expanding TWA, and for his debilitating eccentric behavior in later life. - David Geffen
David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer, philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970 (which merged with Elektra Records in 1972 to form Elektra/Asylum Records), and Geffen Records in 1980, along with his later role as one of the three founders of Dreamworks SKG in 1994. According to "Forbes" magazine, he is a billionaire. - Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer (born Eliezer Meir 1882 - October 29, 1957) was an early film producer, most famous for his stewardship and co-founding of the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in its golden years. - David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902-June 22, 1965), was one of the iconic Hollywood producers of the Golden Age. He is best known for producing the epic blockbuster "Gone with the Wind" (1939) which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture. Not only did "Gone with the Wind" gross the highest amount of money at the box office of any film ever (adjusted for inflation), but it also won seven additional Oscars and two special awards. - Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg (born December 21, 1950 in New York City) is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG. He is perhaps most famous for his period as studio chairman at The Walt Disney Company, and for producing the movie "Shrek" (2001). - Jack Warner
Jack Warner (J.L. for short) (August 2, 1892 - September 9, 1978), born John Eichelbaum in London, Ontario, Canada of a Polish-Jewish family, was the president and driving force behind the highly successful development of Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. - Michael Eisner
Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) was CEO of The Walt Disney Company from September 22, 1984 to September 30, 2005. He began his career at ABC, became President of Paramount Pictures in 1976, and then assumed the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Co. in 1984. - Harry Cohn
Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891-February 27, 1958), sometimes nicknamed King Cohn, was president and production director of Columbia Pictures. Cohn was born to a working-class German-Jewish family in New York City. In later years, he appears to have disparaged his heritage. After working for a time as a streetcar conductor, and then as a promoter for a sheet music printer, he got a job with Universal Pictures, where his brother, Jack Cohn, was already employed. - Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902-December 22, 1979) was a producer, writer, actor and director who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors (the length of his career being rivalled only by that of Adolph Zukor). Zanuck was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, the son of Louise Torpin and Frank Zanuck, a hotelier; his last name is of Dutch origin, and his father had Dutch and German ancestry. - Kirk Kerkorian
Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian (born June 6, 1917) is an American billionaire, and president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping the city of Las Vegas, Nevada and, with architect Martin Stern, Jr. the "father of the megaresort." Kerkorian splits his time between his residences in Beverly Hills and Nevada. One of the richest residents of Beverly Hills, … - William Fox
William Fox (born Wilhelm Fuchs in January 1, 1879-May 8, 1952) founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain. Although Fox sold his interest in these companies in a 1936 bankruptcy settlement, his name lives on as the namesake of the FOX Television Network and 20th Century Fox film studio. Wilhelm Fuchs was born to Jewish parents in Tolcsva, Hungary, then part of Austria-Hungary. - Adolph Zukor
Adolf Cukor (Adolph Zukor) (January 7, 1873-June 10, 1976) was the founder of Paramount Pictures, and one of the greatest film moguls of all time. He was born to a Jewish family in Ricse, Hungary, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and emigrated to America in 1889, at the age of 16. Like most immigrants, he began modestly. When he first landed in New York, he stayed with his family and worked in an upholstery shop. - Carl Laemmle
Carl Laemmle, born in Laupheim, Württemberg, Germany, was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios. Laemmle produced or was otherwise involved in over four hundred films. Regarded as one of the most important of the early film pioneers, Laemmle was born on the Radstrasse just outside the former Jewish quarter of Laupheim, Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1884, … - Harry Warner
Harold ("Harry") Morris Warner (born Hirsch Warner), December 12, 1881 Krasnosielc, Poland - 25 July, 1958 was one of the founders of Warner Bros. and a major contributor to the development of the film industry. - Marvin Davis
Marvin Davis (August 31, 1925 in Newark, New Jersey - September 25, 2004 in Beverly Hills, California) was the billionaire former owner of Twentieth Century Fox and Pebble Beach, the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the Denver Broncos NFL team. Davis built and twice sold the Century Plaza complex in Century City, California. The buildings became famous as the Nakatomi buildings in the original "Die Hard" film. - Zane Grey
Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and pulp fiction that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West. As of June 2007, the Internet Movie Database credits Grey with 110 films, one TV episode, and one entire TV Series based on his novels and stories. - Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew (May 7, 1870-September 5, 1927) was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loews Theatres and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Born into a poor Jewish family in New York City, he was forced by circumstances to work at a very young age and thus had little formal education. Nevertheless, beginning with a small investment from money saved from menial jobs, he bought into the penny arcade business. - Spyros Skouras
Spyros P. Skouras was an American movie executive who was the chairman of the Twentieth Century Fox from 1942 to 1962. He resigned June 27, 1962 effective September 30. An immigrant to America from Greece, his accent was so pronounced that Bob Hope would joke "Spyros has been here twenty years but he still sounds as if he's coming next week." Spyros oversaw the production of such epics as "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor, as well as the creation of Century City. - Sam Warner
Samuel Warner was a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Warner Brothers film company. The other Warner brothers were Harry Warner (1881–1958), Albert Warner (1883–1967), and Jack L. Warner (1892–1978). Samuel Eichelbaum was born in Baltimore, Maryland, not long after the arrival of his Polish-Jewish parents in the US. In the early 1900s he worked as a movie projectionist at an amusement park and convinced Harry Warner of the new medium's possibilities. - Jesse L. Lasky
Jesse Louis Lasky (September 13, 1880 - January 13, 1958) was a pioneer Hollywood film producer, and also a key person to invent Paramount pictures with Adolph Zukor. Born in San Francisco, California, he worked at a variety of jobs but began his entertainment career as a vaudeville performer that eventually led to the motion picture business. - Joseph Schenck
Joseph Michael Schenck (December 25, 1878 - October 22, 1961) was a pioneer executive who played a key role in the development of the United States film industry. Born in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, he and his younger brother Nicholas emigrated to New York City in 1893 where they eventually got into the entertainment business operating concessions at New York's Fort George Amusement Park. - Siegmund Lubin
Siegmund Lubin was an American businessman and motion picture pioneer. Born as Siegmund Lubszynski in Breslau, Silesia, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) to a German Jewish family, in 1876 he emigrated to the United States where he became a successful optical shop owner in the city of Philadelphia. His business led to a fascination with Thomas Edison's new motion picture invention and eventually Lubin entered the film business. - Nicholas Schenck
Nicholas M. Schenck, born in Rybinsk, Russia on November 14, 1881 - died March 4, 1969 in Florida, was a motion-picture mogul and impresario. One of seven children, Schenck was born in Rybinsk, a Volga River village in Tsarist Russia. He and his family, including his older brother Joseph Schenck, emigrated to the United States in 1893, whereupon they settled in a tenement on New York's Lower East Side. - Oscar Micheaux
Oscar Micheaux (January 2, 1893 - March 25, 1951) was a pioneering African American author and is widely recognized as being the first African-American filmmaker (although he was predated by the shortlived Lincoln Motion Picture Company). He is without a doubt the most famous producer of race films. Micheaux (or sometimes written as "Michaux"), was born near Metropolis, Illinois and grew up in Great Bend, Kansas, one of eleven children of former slaves. - Roy O. Disney
Roy Oliver Disney (June 24, 1893-December 20, 1971) was, with his younger brother Walt Disney, co-founder of what is now The Walt Disney Company. Roy served as the company's chief executive officer (1929-1971), president (1945-1971), and chairman (1966-1971). Roy was born to Elias Disney and the former Flora Call in Chicago, Illinois. He married Edna Francis in April 1925, and from this marriage he is the father of Roy Edward Disney, who was born on January 10, 1930. - Broncho Billy Anderson
Broncho Billy Anderson (March 21, 1880 - January 20, 1971) was an American actor, writer, director, and producer, who is best known as the first star of the Western film genre. - Albert Warner
Albert Warner was one of the founders of Warner Bros. Studios. The other Warner brothers were Harry Warner (1881–1958), Sam Warner (1887–1927), and Jack L. Warner (1892-1978). Born in Krasnosielc, Mazovia, Poland, he emigrated with his family to Canada in the early 1890s. The family moved to Ohio and as a young man, along with his two brothers, Albert Warner entered the nickelodeon business in Pennsylvania in 1903. - Jules Brulatour
Jules Brulatour, was a pioneering figure in U.S. silent cinema. Beginning as American distribution representative for Lumiere Freres raw film stock in 1907, he joined producer Carl Laemmle in forming the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company in 1909, effectively weakening the stronghold of the Motion Picture Patents Company, headed by Thomas Edison, a large trust company that was then monopolizing the American film industry through contracts with hand-picked, … - B. P. Schulberg
B.P. Schulberg (January 19, 1892 - February 25, 1957) was a pioneer film producer and movie studio executive. Born Benjamin Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he worked in the fledgling film industry in New York City until 1919 when he moved to Hollywood, California where he operated "Preferred Pictures" and was responsible for making Clara Bow a star. He joined Louis B. Mayer to form "Mayer-Schulberg Studio" but after Mayer became part of MGM, … - William Goetz
William Goetz was an American Hollywood film producer and studio executive. Born to a Jewish working class family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Goetz was the youngest of eight children. His mother died when he was ten years old and shortly thereafter his father abandoned the family. Raised by older brothers, at the age of twenty-one he followed some of his brothers to Hollywood where he found work as a crew hand at one of the large studios. - Lewis J. Selznick
Lewis J. Selznick (May 2, 1870 - January 25, 1933) was a US film producer. Born Lewis Zeleznik to an impoverished Jewish family in Kiev in what is now the Ukraine, as a young boy he emigrated to London, UK. He eventually moved to the United States, settling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he worked as a jeweler. Fascinated with the fledgling motion picture business, and recognizing a business opportunity with great potential, … - Giancarlo Parretti
Giancarlo Parretti is an Italian financier. He formerly owned the movie studio Pathé and in 1989 took over Cannon Film Group Inc. from Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. In 1990, Parretti also bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, using money borrowed from a Dutch subsidiary of Crédit Lyonnais and contingent on future profits financing the purchase from mogul Kirk Kerkorian. With the financier, MGM released almost no movies (one victim being the James Bond franchise), … - Walt Elias Disney
Walter Elias Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Disney is notable as one of the most influential and innovative figures in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Walt became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. - Pat Powers
Patrick A. Powers (1869 - 30 July 1948) was an Irish-American businessman, involved in the animation industry of the 1920s and 1930s. Born in County Waterford, Ireland, he founded the Powers Motion Picture Company that merged with Carl Laemmle's IMP film company and others in 1912 to create Universal Pictures. He served as treasurer of the Universal Motion Picture Company. According to the "Buffalo Courier-Express" obit dated 1 August 1948, … - J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton, usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation. Considered the father of American Animation. Blackton was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, in 1875. At the age of ten, he and his family immigrated to New York City. In 1894, Blackton and two fellow English émigrés, … - Al Christie
Al Christie, (October 23, 1881 - April 14, 1951) was a Canadian-born motion picture director, producer and screenwriter. Born Alfred Ernest Christie, in London, Ontario, Canada, he was one of a number of Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood who made their way to Hollywood, California, attracted by the newly developing motion picture business. Al Christie began his career in 1909 working for David Horsley's Nestor film company. - Hiram Abrams
Hiram Abrams was an early American movie mogul and one of the first presidents of Paramount Pictures and the first managing director of United Artists
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