In 1935, 20th Century Pictures
bought the troubled Fox Films to form 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation,
which was considered as the mouse buying and controlling the elephant.
See our article on Fox Film Corporation
The new 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation
was headed by Joseph Schenck as chairman of the board. The new officers
was Sidney Kent from Fox as president, William Goetz as vice president,
and Darryl Zanuck as head of production.
Joseph Schenck remained chairman of the
board until his resignation in 1942 and Wendell Wilkie took over as chairman
of the board. That same year, Sidney Kent died and Spyros Skouras became
president.
Darryl Zanuck remained as production head
until 1956 when he left to start his own independent company. At that
time Buddy Adler became head of production until his death when Robert
Goldstein and then Peter Levathes took over production.
In 1962, Skouras moved to chairman of
the board and Darryl Zanuck came back to become president and named his
son, Richard Zanuck as head of production.
In 1969, Skouras retired and Darryl Zanuck
moved to chairman of the board and moved his son Richard to president.
In 1971, 20th Century weathered a proxy
fight which changed up the management. Dennis Stanfill replaced Richard
Zanuck as president and then soon after Stanfill replaced Darryl Zanuck
as chairman of the board.
Stanfill brought new management changes
which consolidated the east coast and west coast operations under one
roof. This stabilized the company until 1981 when Fox merged with a company
owned by Marvin Davis. Davis then sold off 20th Century Fox to Rupert
Murdoch in 1985.
In October, 1985, Fox, Inc was formed.
It was a consolidation of 20th Century Fox Film Corp, Fox Television Stations,
Inc, and Fox Broadcasting Co.
New life was put into the studio in 1989
with the revamping of the film making division and renaming it Fox Film
Corporation again. Joe Roth was make head of producion and production
jumped from 12 feature films a year to 30 features a year.
In 1992, Roth resigned and Peter Chernin
replaced him as head of production.
Over the years, the actors and actresses
that have made 20th Century Fox films have been an impressive list. Shirley
Temple, Elizabeth Taylor, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Richard
Burton, Natalie Wood, Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Gene Hackman, Julie Andrews,
Charlton Heston, Tyrone Power, Jean Harlow, Sonja Henie, Gregory Peck,
Don Ameche, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Will Rogers, Susan Hayward,
Carmen Miranda, Milton Berle, Caesar Romero, Roddy McDowall, Jeanne Crain,
Bruce Willis, and Barbra Streisand (to just to name a few) all made films
on the 20th Century Fox back lot.
Go back to 20th
Century Fox Article
Go back to the Studio
Section
See a list of 20th
Century Fox Films from our archives
