Saul Zaentz

Saul Zaentz carved a niche in film with accomplished, often critically acclaimed adaptations of novels and plays. A child of immigrant parents, the New Jersey native had originally planned to open a chicken farm after his service in WWII, until he spent six weeks actually working on one. Instead, he migrated first to St Louis, where he took business courses, and eventually landed in San Francisco, where he secured work in the music industry. After moving up from distribution through packaging concert tours, Zaentz went to work at the San Francisco-based Fantasy Records. Originally specializing in jazz and cabaret comics like Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl, Fantasy grew in the 1960s thanks in large part to a series of hit singles by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Despite persistent bad blood between himself and many of the artists who recorded for Fantasy Records, most notably Creedence leader John Fogerty, about the label's business practices, Zaentz then moved into an extremely successful career as a film producer that netted three Best Picture Oscars in three decades, plus an Irving G. Thalberg Award, before his death in 2014.