How Many Competitive Oscars was 20th Century Fox Mogul Darryl F. Zanuck Nominated for, and How Many Did He Win?

Darryl F. Zanuck in the 1930s, when he was in his thirties

By N.S.

According to imdb.com, Zanuck, the longtime studio mogul of 20th Century Fox Pictures, was only nominated twice for Best Picture (the producer’s Oscar). He won once, for All about Eve (1950), and was nominated but lost for The Longest Day (1962). He was also nominated once for Best Writing, Original Story, for G Men (1935), for a script he’d written pseudonymously, as “Gregory Rogers.”

(For some strange reason, or none at all, the Academy gave Zanuck the non-competitive Irving Thalberg Memorial Award four times—1938, 1939, 1945 and 1951.)

imdb.com, long the gold standard for knowledge about movies, is no longer a reliable source, even for information that is elsewhere readily available in its pages.

For, in fact, Darryl F. Zanuck was nominated for 13 competitive Oscars (12 for Best Picture), and won three of them.

All of his competitive nominations follow (I always list the year of release; the nomination was always for the following year):

42nd Street (1933);

The House of Rothschild (1934);

G Men (1935);

Les Miserables (1935);

In Old Chicago (1937);

The Grapes of Wrath (1940);

How Green was My Valley (1941) (Won for Best Picture);

Wilson (1944);

The Razor’s Edge (1946);

Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) (Won for Best Picture);

Twelve O’Clock High (1949);

All about Eve (1950) (Won for Best Picture); and

The Longest Day (1962)

I only listed Best Picture nominations, in which Zanuck was the producer. Executive, associate, and assistant producers do not get Oscar nominations for nominated pictures, nor Oscars for winning pictures.

In case one should object that for some of the nominated pictures, Zanuck was not listed as “producer,” that is no excuse for stiffing him. After all, he wasn’t listed as author of the original story for G Men (1935), or nominated under his own name, and yet imdb.com lists him as having been nominated for the story. (And imdb.com has credited then-blacklisted writers for their pseudonymous nominations and Oscar wins, generations after the fact.)

But I’m not done yet.

Darryl Zanuck was also widely considered “the best cutter” (editor) in the business, and insisted on editing the big prestige pictures he produced. When John Ford directed pictures for Zanuck, Ford would complain to everyone but Zanuck, “He’s ruining my picture,” because Zanuck would cut all manner of business that Ford had worked into the movie, e.g., comic relief. Zanuck was very tight with time, and with sticking to the stories his brilliant screenwriters (Lamar Trotti, Philip Dunne, et al.) had created, and which Zanuck would occasionally give a splendid final polish (Dunne’s script for How Green was My Valley [1941]).

Thus, Zanuck earned an additional six nominations, and one Oscar, for Best Film Editing. Other people were officially nominated for those Oscars, but they either edited the pictures together with Zanuck, or he gave them credit for his work.

Les Misérables (1935), Barbara McLean;

The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Robert L. Simpson;

How Green was My Valley (1941), James B. Clark;

Wilson (1944), Barbara McLean (Won);

All about Eve (1950), Barbara McLean; and

The Longest Day (1962), Samuel E. Beetley

If I’m right, Darryl F. Zanuck earned himself 19 competitive Oscar nominations, and four competitive Oscars, all told. For over 40 years, he was one of the most brilliant creative and business minds in movies, anywhere in the world, and was the only American movie mogul who could make a movie with his own two hands. imdb.com would do well to correct its shortchanging of the man.