Born in Ricse, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary). One of the original studio "moguls." Zukor arrived in the US at 16, got one of his first jobs as a furrier's apprentice and, over 80 years later, was still going to work every day -- at Paramount Pictures. Zukor worked his way up to become a well-heeled Chicago furrier and, in 1903, teamed with Marcus Loew to open the first of a series of penny arcades. Two years later the team formed Loew's Consolidated, with Zukor as treasurer of the far-flung empire of theaters. He went into films on his own in 1912 and reaped a windfall as the US distributor of the four-reel European production QUEEN ELIZABETH. With his profits he formed Famous Players, a production and distribution company modelled after France's Film d'Art, which filmed popular plays starring renowned stage performers. The resultant "canned theater" proved a resounding financial success, which was compounded by his signing of Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart," later that year. In 1916 Famous Players joined forces with the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company to form the Famous Players-Lasky Company, with Zukor as president. They soon took the name of a minor company they had bought (Paramount), snapped up a chain of movie theaters and hired two soon-to-be distinguished impresarios (Samuel Goldwyn, C.B. De Mille) to run the operation, which would emerge as one of the industry's leading studios. With Zukor at the helm, Paramount weathered the financial downturn of the early 1930s. He fended off a number of attempts to unseat him until, in 1936, he was replaced as president by Barney Balaban. Zukor assumed the token position of chairman of the board. He published a memoir, The Public is Never Wrong, in 1953 and remained as Paramount's chairman of the board emeritus until his death at the age of 103. See the Internet Movie Database for a listing of the 456 films that listed him as "presenter" and the 91 films of which he was producer or executive producer.  Nominated for Production 1927-28: THE WAY OF ALL FLESH - Producer  Nominated for Best Picture 1930-31: SKIPPY - Studio Head, Paramount  Nominated for Best Picture 1931-32: SHANGHAI EXPRESS - Studio Head, Paramount  Nominated for Best Picture 1932-33: A FAREWELL TO ARMS - Studio Head, Paramount  Special Award 1948: "A man who has been called the father of the feature film in America, for his service to the industry over a period of forty years." 4 nominations, 1 Honorary Award