Darryl Francis Biography

He found work producing movie plots, selling his first story in 1922 to William Russell and his second to Irving Thalberg. He then worked for Mack Sennett and took that experience to Warner Brothers, where he wrote stories for 'Rin Tin Tin'. Under a number of pseudonyms he wrote over forty scripts, from 1924 to 1929.

He moved into management in 1929 and became head of production in 1931.

In 1933 he left Warners to found Twentieth Century Films with Joseph M. Schenck, releasing their material through United Artists. In 1935 they bought out Fox studios to become Twentieth Century-Fox. Zanuck was vice-president of this new studio and took an interventionist approach, closely involved in editing and producing.

During the war he worked for the army. In the 1950s he withdrew from the studio to concentrate on independent producing in Europe. He left his wife in 1956 and the later films which he came to produce often featured his girlfriend of that day.

He returned to control of Fox in 1962, following the studio's disastrous 'Cleopatra', replacing Spyros Skouras. He made his son Richard head of production, but became involved in a power struggle with the board and his son from around 1969. In May 1971 Zanuck was finally forced from 'his' studio.

He died of pneumonia in Palm Springs, California in 1979.