Los Angeles Times · CC BY 4.0

Produced Mildred Pierce (1945) and Johnny Belinda (1948) at Warner Bros. before moving on to An Affair to Remember and the film adaptation of Peyton Place, both in 1957, building one of the more consistent track records of any producer in the studio system — four Best Picture nominations, though never a win. Received the Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1949, and is widely thought to have been the model, denied by the author, for the ruthless title character of Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run?