20th Century Studios · Public domain

A Hungarian immigrant, born Vilmos Fried, who built the Fox Film Corporation and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain into one of the dominant vertically integrated studios of early Hollywood, controlling both production and the theaters that showed his films. He lost control of his empire in 1930 after a car accident, antitrust pressure, and the 1929 crash converged against him, but his name endures in 20th Century Fox, Fox News, and the present-day Fox Corporation, none of which he had any hand in.