Darryl Francis Zanuck (; September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. Best known as a co-founder of 20th Century Fox, 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). Zanuck produced three films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture and won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award three times, the only person to receive more than one. Wikipedia