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A key figure in Hollywood's studio system, Zanuck was born from the troubled union of an alcoholic night clerk at Wahoo, Nebraska's sole hotel and the hotel owner's daughter. Both parents had deserted him by age 13. At 15, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in Belgium during World War I. After his discharge, he survived through various sporadic jobs—steelworker, garment factory foreman, professional boxer—while striving to become a writer. His first published story appeared in "Physical Culture," a pulp magazine, which he adapted into a film scenario for William Russell; his next significant sale was to Irving Thalberg. Despite often being labeled as barely literate, Zanuck demonstrated a talent for crafting movie plots. Following a well-paid apprenticeship with Mack Sennett, Syd Chaplin, and Carl Laemmle, he found success by co-creating (with Malcolm St. Clair) the Rin Tin Tin series of police-dog films for Warner Brothers. Writing under his own name and three pseudonyms, he produced up to 19 scripts annually and became head of production at 23. He helped shape Warner Bros.' style with films such as The Jazz Singer (1927), The Public Enemy (1931), and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). In 1933, after Warner Brothers made it clear he would remain an employee, Zanuck left to establish Twentieth Century Films with support from Louis B. Mayer and Joseph M. Schenck. In 1935, Twentieth Century absorbed the bankrupt Fox studio. Zanuck dominated the merged company for decades, gaining a reputation as the most "hands-on" major studio executive, particularly proud of his skill in reworking films during editing. His hallmark productions were emotionally rich dramas like How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). In the late 1950s, Zanuck stepped back from daily studio operations, left his wife, and relocated to Europe to focus on producing. Many of his later projects aimed partly to advance the careers of his successive girlfriends—Bella Darvi, Juliette Gréco, Irina Demick, and Geneviève Gilles—none of whom achieved notable success with directors or audiences. After the success of The Longest Day (1962), Zanuck returned to lead 20th Century-Fox; he promoted his son, Richard D. Zanuck, to head of production but later orchestrated his dismissal amid a contentious boardroom conflict. Within months, in May 1971, Zanuck himself was ousted, becoming the last studio head of his generation to fall.
