Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation from 1935 to 1985 — also known as 20th Century Fox, or 20th Century Fox Pictures, is one of the six major American film studios as of 2011. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it's currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox.

The company was founded on May 31, 1935, as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck.

20th Century Fox has distributed various commercially successful film series, including Star Wars, Ice Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four, Alien and Predator. Television series produced by Fox include The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, Family Guy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Modern Family and 24. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star, Dorothy Dandridge.

20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)

Fox Film Corporation

The Fox Film Corporation was formed in 1915 by theatre chain pioneer William Fox, who formed Fox Film Corporation by merging two companies he had established in 1913: Greater New York Film Rental, a distribution firm, which was part of the Independents; and Fox (or Box, depending on the source) Office Attractions Company, a production company. This merging of companies of two different types was an early example of vertical integration. Only a year before, the latter company had distributed Winsor McCay's ground breaking cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur. The company's first film studios were set up in Fort Lee, New Jersey where it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century.

Twentieth Century Pictures

Twentieth Century Pictures was an independent Hollywood motion picture production company created in 1933 by Joseph Schenck (the former president of United Artists) and Darryl F. Zanuck from Warner Brothers. Financial backing came from Schenck's younger brother Nicholas Schenck and Louis B. Mayer's son-in-law William Goetz. The company product was distributed by United Artists (UA), and leased space at Samuel Goldwyn Studios.

Schenck was President of 20th Century, while Zanuck was named Vice President in Charge of Production and Goetz served as vice-president. Successful from the very beginning, their 1934 production, The House of Rothschild was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1935, they produced the classic film Les Misérables, from Victor Hugo's novel, which was also nominated for Best Picture. Legend has it that the new independent took a detour straight into the major studio camp when Zanuck became outraged by United Artists' board including UA's co-founder Mary Pickford's refusal to reward Twentieth Century with UA stock, fearing it would have diluted the value of holdings by another UA stockholder and co-founder, D.W. Griffith. Schenck, who had been a UA stockholder for over ten years, resigned from United Artists in protest of the shoddy treatment of Twentieth Century, and Zanuck began discussions with other distributors, which led to talks with the floundering giant, Fox.

Old Hollywood

The names of the actors and actresses who have worked on the Fox lot are equally impressive. Little Shirley Temple made most of her classic musicals here. Elizabeth Taylor, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Richard Burton, Natalie Wood, Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Gene Hackman, Julie Andrews, Charlton Heston, Tyrone Power, Jean Harlow, Sonja Henie, Gregory Peck, Don Ameche, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Will Rogers, Susan Hayward, Carmen Miranda, Milton Berle, Caesar Romero, Roddy McDowall, Jeanne Crain, Bruce Willis, and Barbra Streisand all made films on this famous back lot.In 1956, Elvis Presley made his first movie for Fox: "Love Me Tender."

1910 Films

Randy Rangoon's Wonderful Horse (1914)Regeneration (1915)A Daughter of the GodsCleopatra (1917, a legendary lost film)Under the Yoke (1918)

1920 Films

The Lights of New York (1922, with Technicolor sequences)Madness of Youth (1923, with Technicolor sequences)Circus Cowboy (1924)The Iron Horse (1924)Fig Leaves (1926, with Technicolor sequences)The Cowboy and The Countess (1926)Yankee Senor (1926, with Technicolor sequences)Hell's Four Hundred (1926, with Technicolor sequences)The Joy Girl (1927, with Technicolor sequences)Seventh Heaven (1927) (1927/28 Academy Award winner, Best Actress Janet Gaynor)Sunrise (1927), one of the first films in the sound-on-film system Fox Movietone; only the musical score was heard. 1927/28 Academy Award winner, Best Actress Janet Gaynor)None But the Brave (1928, with Technicolor sequences)Street Angel (1928) (1927/28 Academy Award winner, Best Actress Janet Gaynor)In Old Arizona (1928, Fox's first all-talkie, Academy Award winner) (1928/29 Academy Award winner, Best Actor Warner Baxter)Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (1929, with Multicolor sequences)Married in Hollywood (1929, with Multicolor sequences)Sunny Side Up (1929, with Multicolor sequences)Hearts in Dixie (1929, black and white)The Cock-Eyed World (1929, black and white)

Lauren Jones