Jack Warner

Jack Warner (born August 2, 1892, London, Ontario, Canada—died September 9, 1978, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) was an American motion-picture producer who was the best known and youngest of the four brothers—Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack—who founded Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., which became one of Hollywood’s Big Five studios.

Warner and his brothers were the sons of an immigrant Polish cobbler and peddler and his wife. Jack Warner grew up largely in Youngstown, Ohio. The brothers got into the movie business by acquiring their own film projector and using it for traveling shows. About 1903 they opened a movie theatre in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Because the system of film distribution at the time was unreliable, the brothers organized a group of theatre owners into a distribution exchange, which proved so successful that film producers set out to stymie it. The Warner brothers concluded that it would be necessary to produce their own movies.

The Warner Brothers studio was established in 1923. Jack Warner, as vice president in charge of production, ran Warner’s movie industry like a factory, with discipline and order. He personally supervised the selection of story material, the selection of producers and directors, and the search for acting and directorial talent. Economy-minded, he anticipated repeated use of sets, costumes, and props in reassembled combinations. He also, however, sought authenticity and tried to see to it that regional or national modes or customs were accurately portrayed.

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Jack Warner was president as well as head of production at Warner’s from 1956; when the studio was taken over in 1965 by Seven Arts, he became president of the Warner–Seven Arts Studio but retained his own independent production company and came to be seen as one of the last of the movie moguls. He personally produced My Fair Lady (1964) and Camelot (1967). He retired in 1972.