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Visit - group Other Names:
W. M. Fox, Wm. Fox
description About
Starting at the age 8 he had a series of jobs before starting his own business in 1900, which was sold to buy a Brooklyn nickelodeon in 1904. As the new owner with an empty house, Fox hired a coin manipulator and a barker to attract patrons into the dark 146-seat theatre. Once audiences adequately understood what moving pictures were, live acts were dispensed with. More nickelodeons were opened and he became a successful film exhibitor. He then won a long legal battle against Thomas Edison's Motion Pictures Patent Company, ending the film trust and allowing him to start his own production company in 1913. Operations were consolidated into the Fox Film Corporation in 1915. Theda Bara and Tom Mix starred in successful pictures made at the Fox Hollywood studios and the profits from them, and from the 1000 house Fox theatre chain, paid for "artistic" projects like Sunrise (1926), for awards and critical acclaim. In 1927, Fox acquired the American patent rights to the sound-on-film process developed by a Swiss firm. Fox pioneered the widescreen film with The Big Trail (1930). Poised for the future of talkies, he attempted to buy MGM just in time for 1929s stock market crash. In 1930 Fox was forced out of his company after a federal anti-trust investigation. His version is told in 1933 Upton Sinclair's book, 'Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox.' In 1936, a year after Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Pictures merged with Fox Films, Fox bribed a judge during the liquidation of his holdings in bankruptcy proceedings. His sentence, a year in prison, began in 1941. Paroled in 1943, he was a pariah in Hollywood. Though secure from his many patent holdings, the industry for which he had been so visionary was closed to him. A virtual pariah at the time of his death, no industry representative came to eulogize at his funeral.
Info
- wc Gender: Male
- calendar_month Birth Date: 1879-01-01
- event Death Date 1952-05-08
- school Known for: Production
- star Popularity: 0.8
- info Birth Place Tolcsva, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]
- visibility Views: 5 views
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star User Ratings:
image Images
smart_display Movies and TV shows by William Fox
movie_edit Directing
7
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927-11-04
7
The Shadow of the East
1924-01-27
7
His Noisy Still
1920-10-25
7
The Loves of Carmen
1927-09-03
7
Gold Heels
1924-11-30
7
Flames of Desire
1924-11-30
7
Up the River
1930-10-10
7
Monte Cristo
1922-09-03
7
Lucky Star
1929-08-18
7
Hoodman Blind
1923-12-20
7
East Side, West Side
1927-10-09
7
Cradle Snatchers
1927-05-28
7
The Black Watch
1929-05-22
7
Common Clay
1930-08-01
7
A Daughter of the Gods
1916-10-16
7
Disorderly Conduct
1932-03-20
7
Just Pals
1920-10-21
7
Caravane
1934-10-25
7
The Big Trail
1931-03-29
7
Salome
1918-08-10
7
High Society Blues
1930-03-23
7
The Strongest
1920-02-01
7
Upstream
1927-01-30
7
The Painted Woman
1932-08-20
7
Annabelle's Affairs
1931-06-14
7
Love Letters
1924-02-10
7
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1929-01-01
7
Cleopatra
1917-10-14
7
The Eternal Sapho
1916-05-06
7
Six Cylinder Love
1931-05-10
7
Quick Millions
1931-04-17
7
She Wanted a Millionaire
1932-02-21
7
Young America
1932-04-17
7
Street Angel
1928-04-09
7
7th Heaven
1927-09-10
7
The River
1929-10-06
7
They Had to See Paris
1929-09-18
7
Tumbling River
1927-08-21
7
If Winter Comes
1923-03-07
7
Little Miss Smiles
1922-01-15
7
Jackie
1921-11-27
7
Jackie
1921-11-27
7
Fazil
1928-06-04
7
The Valiant
1929-05-19
7
A Girl in Every Port
1928-02-26
7
Not Quite Decent
1929-07-02
7
Ladies Must Dress
1927-11-20
7
Society Girl
1932-05-29
7
South of Tahiti
1941-10-17
7
Jungle Pals
1923-08-26
7
Step Lively, Please
1922-10-15
7
The Fighting Heart
1925-10-18
7
Strong Boy
1929-03-03
7
Hearts of Oak
1924-10-05
7
The Honor System
1917-02-12
7
Is Zat So?
1927-05-15
7
Wild Girl
1932-11-09
7
A Fool There Was
1915-01-12
7
East Lynne
1916-06-18
7
Mother Knows Best
1928-10-28
7
The Darling of Paris
1917-01-22
7
Happy Days
1929-09-16
7
Oh, for a Man!
1930-11-28
7
Rackety Rax
1932-10-23
7
Honor First
1922-08-27
7
Honor First
1922-08-27
7
The Face on the Barroom Floor
1923-01-01
7
The Play Girl
1928-04-22
7
The Far Call
1929-04-28
7
Regeneration
1914-05-11
7
Wings of Youth
1925-05-21
7
The Big Party
1930-02-23
7
Silk Hat Kid
1935-07-19
7
Gentle Julia
1923-12-24
7
From the Valley of the Missing
1915-03-22
7
Fig Leaves
1926-08-22
7
Anna Karenina
1915-03-31
7
Unreal News Reel
1923-09-23
7
City Girl
1930-01-12
7
Hoopla
1933-11-30
7
Such Men Are Dangerous
1930-03-09
7
It's Great to Be Alive
1933-07-08
7
Romance of the Underworld
1928-11-10
7
Slaves of Fashion
1931-07-03
7
Law of the Harem
1931-10-09
7
Do You Know Your Wife?
1931-09-11
7
You Have to Marry the Prince
1931-07-24
7
There Were Thirteen
1931-12-04
7
Rough Romance
1930-06-15
7
A Self-Made Man
1922-06-25
7
A Self-Made Man
1922-06-25
7
More Pay - Less Work
1926-07-04
7
Fleetwing
1928-06-24
7
Big Town Ideas
1921-05-20
7
Why I Would Not Marry
1918-11-24
7
A Man's Mate
1924-03-16
7
The Gay Retreat
1927-09-25
7
The Wonderful Adventure
1915-09-27
7
The Tiger's Cub
7
The Tiger's Cub
7
The Woman and the Law
1918-03-17
7
The Woman and the Law
1918-03-17
7
A Woman's Resurrection
1915-05-01
7
Should a Mother Tell
1915-07-01
7
The Song of Hate
1915-09-01
7
Kreutzer Sonata
1915-03-01
7
The Galley Slave
1915-11-28
7
The Galley Slave
1915-11-28
7
Daughters of the Night
1924-11-09
7
Two Girls Wanted
1927-09-11
7
Pawn Ticket 210
1922-12-24
7
Snowdrift
1923-04-22
7
The Face at Your Window
1920-10-31
7
Without Fear
1922-04-16
7
Know Your Men
1921-03-13
7
His Greatest Sacrifice
1921-04-17
7
Early to Wed
1926-04-25
7
Shirley of the Circus
1922-11-12
7
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
1918-11-24
7
The Spy
1931-04-26
7
Singing River
1920-11-21
7
Who Are My Parents?
1922-11-26
7
Does It Pay?
1923-10-07
7
David Harum
1934-03-02
7
The Queen of Hearts
1918-09-15
7
The Gunfighter
1923-09-02
7
Ever Since Eve
1921-08-28
7
Love Is Love
1919-08-17
7
Words and Music by -
1919-05-18
7
Perjury
1921-08-14
7
A Stage Romance
1922-03-05
7
The Iron Horse
1925-10-04
7
Cowardice Court
1919-06-15
7
The Silent Command
1923-08-18