During World War II he served as supervisor for Signal Corps training films and the photographic record of the North Africa invasion, and was awarded the Legion of Merit. After cremation, his ashes were scattered on the Pacific Ocean.
Father of producer Richard D. Zanuck and Darrilyn Zanuck DePineda.
Grandfather of Harrison Zanuck and Dean Zanuck.
He was hired by Warner Bros. in 1924 as a writer on Rin Tin Tin pictures at a little less than $500 per week. By the end of 1925 he had been promoted to executive in charge of production at a salary of $5000 per week.
He was the prime promoter of the CinemaScope anamorphic widescreen system. Many exhibitors were afraid to make the significant investment required to install CinemaScope equipment in case it was only a short-lived fad, like 3-D. He pledged that all future 20th Century-Fox releases would be in CinemaScope (or an other compatible process).
In 1917 he lied about his age and joined the US Army (he was actually 15 at the time) and was eventually posted to the Mexican border, during which time he took part in the punitive expedition against Mexican revolutionary / bandit Pancho Villa. He was later sent to France, where he saw even more combat.
Is portrayed by John Rubinstein in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996) (TV)
Is portrayed by Peter Maloney in This Year's Blonde (1980) (TV), by Sandy McPeak in Marilyn and Me (1991) (TV) and by William Atherton in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) (TV)
Is portrayed by Steven Vidler in Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story (2001) (TV)
Is the only person who received three AMPAS Irving Thalberg Memorial Awards; the Academy no longer gives more then one Memorial Award to one person. The other person who received more than one was Hal B. Wallis.
It was an unwritten rule on the 20th Century Fox lot that Zanuck was "in conference" between 4:00 and 4:30 pm daily, "interviewing" one of his starlets or chorus girls.
Later regretted his involvement in the pre-Civil Rights-era movie Ham and Eggs at the Front (1927) and considered movies he made as head of 20th Century-Fox like Pinky (1949) and Gentleman's Agreement (1947) as atonement.
Like Charles Chaplin, he kept a dictionary in his office bathroom. Zanuck would escape to the bathroom to look up words his underlings would use that he didn't understand.
On December 2,1960, he acquired the film rights to The Longest Day (1962) for $175,000.
Once claimed (circa 1970) that 20th Century-Fox intends to sell films on videotape five years after their release in cinemas.
Produced Gentleman's Agreement (1947), one of the first films about anti- Semitism, even though Zanuck himself was not Jewish.
Reportedly had a fondness for Scrabble.
Served as rank of Colonel in the cinema section of the Signal Corps. He had to resign, during August 1942, as head of production at 20th Century Fox to do so.
When Zanuck was at Warner Brothers, Jack Warner felt that the public had tired of gangster pictures and challenged him to come up with something new. Zanuck came up with the idea of a cycle of biographical films of which "Disreali" was the first.