- published: 19 Nov 2015
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Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902 – December 22, 1979) was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive 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). He earned three Academy Awards during his tenure.
Zanuck was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, the son of Louise (Torpin) and Frank Zanuck, who owned and operated a hotel in Wahoo. Zanuck was of part Swiss descent and was raised a Protestant. At six, Zanuck and his mother moved to Los Angeles, where the better climate could improve her poor health. At eight, he found his first movie job as an extra, but his disapproving father recalled him to Nebraska.
In 1918, despite being sixteen, he deceived a recruiter and joined the United States Army and served in France with the Nebraska National Guard. Returning to the U.S., he worked in many part-time jobs while he tried to find work as a writer. He managed to find work producing movie plots, selling his first story in 1922 to William Russell and his second to Irving Thalberg. Screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas, then 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 author's work. Zanuck then worked for Mack Sennett and took that experience to Warner Bros. where he wrote stories for Rin Tin Tin and under a number of pseudonyms wrote over forty scripts from 1924–1929, including Old San Francisco (1927). He moved into management in 1929 and became head of production in 1931.
Documental: Darryl F. Zanuck biografía (Darryl F. Zanuck biography)
Darryl .F. Zanuck
20th Century Fox 1935 tour with Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck on 'Whats My Line' (1958)
Darryl f Zanuck by CIE student(film history assignment)
DARRYL F ZANUCK TO OPEN STUDIOS IN HOLLYWOOD - ZANUCK TALK - SOUND
What's My Line? - Darryl F. Zanuck; Sir Cedric Hardwicke [panel] (Oct 5, 1958)
Time Travellin' Darryl F. Zanuck
1930s Hollywood Studio Bosses Including Darryl F Zanuck and Joseph Moscowitz, Archive Footage
Sam Chew on Meeting Darryl F Zanuck