Richard D. Zanuck was one of the most legendary and influential figures in the history of motion pictures. He died Friday morning at age 77.
He was a huge influence on Hollywood culture, first as the head of 20th Century Fox and, for the past four decades, as a film producer.
While running Fox he released such classics such as “The Sound of Music,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “MASH.”
As an independent producer, Zanuck, who was the son of Darryl Zanuck, the first chief of Fox, was a driving force on movies such as “Jaws,” “Cocoon,” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”
In recent years, he had collaborated frequently with Tim Burton, producing about a half-dozen of the auteur’s movies, including the recently released“Dark Shadows.”
