A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
W. M. Fox
Wm. Fox
Birthplace:
Tolcsva, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]
Born:
January 1, 1879
Died:
May 8, 1952
Starting at the age 8 he had a series of jobs before starting his own business in 1900, which was sold to buy a Brooklyn nickelodeon in 1904. As the new owner with an empty house, Fox hired a coin manipulator and a barker to attract patrons into the dark 146-seat theatre. Once audiences adequately understood what moving pictures were, live acts were dispensed with. More nickelodeons were opened and he became a successful film exhibitor. He then won a long legal battle against Thomas Edison's Motion Pictures Patent Company, ending the film trust and allowing him to start his own production company in 1913. Operations were consolidated into the Fox Film Corporation in 1915. Theda Bara and Tom Mix starred in successful pictures made at the Fox Hollywood studios and the profits from them, and from the 1000 house Fox theatre chain, paid for "artistic" projects like Sunrise (1926), for awards and critical acclaim. In 1927, Fox acquired the American patent rights to the sound-on-film process developed by a Swiss firm. Fox pioneered the widescreen film with The Big Trail (1930). Poised for the future of talkies, he attempted to buy MGM just in time for 1929s stock market crash. In 1930 Fox was forced out of his company after a federal anti-trust investigation. His version is told in 1933 Upton Sinclair's book, 'Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox.' In 1936, a year after Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Pictures merged with Fox Films, Fox bribed a judge during the liquidation of his holdings in bankruptcy proceedings. His sentence, a year in prison, began in 1941. Paroled in 1943, he was a pariah in Hollywood. Though secure from his many patent holdings, the industry for which he had been so visionary was closed to him. A virtual pariah at the time of his death, no industry representative came to eulogize at his funeral.
Executive Producer:
1920 His Noisy Still
1922 Step Lively, Please
1923 Jungle Pals
1923 Unreal News Reel
1929 They Had to See Paris
1930 Common Clay
1930 Oh, for a Man!
1931 Annabelle's Affairs
1934 Caravane
Presenter:
1920 His Noisy Still
1920 The Strongest
1921 Jackie
1922 Little Miss Smiles
1922 Step Lively, Please
1923 Hoodman Blind
1923 Jungle Pals
1923 Unreal News Reel
1924 Flames of Desire
1924 Gold Heels
1924 Hearts of Oak
1924 Love Letters
1924 The Shadow of the East
1925 The Fighting Heart
1926 Fig Leaves
1927 Ladies Must Dress
1927 The Loves of Carmen
1927 Tumbling River
1928 Romance of the Underworld
1929 Not Quite Decent
1929 Strong Boy
1929 The Black Watch
1929 The Valiant
1929 They Had to See Paris
1930 Common Clay
1930 Oh, for a Man!
1930 Such Men Are Dangerous
1931 Annabelle's Affairs
1932 Rackety Rax
1932 Wild Girl
1933 Hoopla
1933 It's Great to Be Alive
1934 Caravane
Producer:
1915 A Fool There Was
1915 Anna Karenina
1916 A Daughter of the Gods
1916 East Lynne
1916 The Eternal Sapho
1917 Cleopatra
1917 The Darling of Paris
1917 The Honor System
1918 Salome
1920 His Noisy Still
1920 Just Pals
1920 The Strongest
1921 Jackie
1922 Little Miss Smiles
1922 Monte Cristo
1922 Step Lively, Please
1923 Hoodman Blind
1923 If Winter Comes
1923 Jungle Pals
1923 The Face on the Barroom Floor
1923 Unreal News Reel
1924 Flames of Desire
1924 Gold Heels
1924 Hearts of Oak
1924 Love Letters
1924 The Shadow of the East
1925 The Fighting Heart
1926 Fig Leaves
1927 7th Heaven
1927 East Side, West Side
1927 Is Zat So?
1927 Ladies Must Dress
1927 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927 The Loves of Carmen
1927 Tumbling River
1927 Upstream
1928 A Girl in Every Port
1928 Fazil
1928 Mother Knows Best
1928 Romance of the Underworld
1928 Street Angel
1929 Happy Days
1929 Lucky Star
1929 Not Quite Decent
1929 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1929 Strong Boy
1929 The Black Watch
1929 The Far Call
1929 The River
1929 The Valiant
1929 They Had to See Paris
1930 City Girl
1930 Common Clay
1930 High Society Blues
1930 Oh, for a Man!
1930 Such Men Are Dangerous
1930 Up the River
1931 Annabelle's Affairs
1931 Do You Know Your Wife?
1931 Law of the Harem
1931 Quick Millions
1931 Six Cylinder Love
1931 Slaves of Fashion
1931 The Big Trail
1931 There Were Thirteen
1931 You have to marry the prince
1932 Disorderly Conduct
1932 Rackety Rax
1932 She Wanted a Millionaire
1932 Society Girl
1932 The Painted Woman
1932 Wild Girl
1932 Young America
1933 Hoopla
1933 It's Great to Be Alive
1934 Caravane
1935 Silk Hat Kid
Sound Technical Supervisor:
1915 A Fool There Was
1915 Anna Karenina
1916 A Daughter of the Gods
1916 East Lynne
1916 The Eternal Sapho
1917 Cleopatra
1917 The Darling of Paris
1917 The Honor System
1918 Salome
1920 His Noisy Still
1920 Just Pals
1920 The Strongest
1921 Jackie
1922 Little Miss Smiles
1922 Monte Cristo
1922 Step Lively, Please
1923 Hoodman Blind
1923 If Winter Comes
1923 Jungle Pals
1923 The Face on the Barroom Floor
1923 Unreal News Reel
1924 Flames of Desire
1924 Gold Heels
1924 Hearts of Oak
1924 Love Letters
1924 The Shadow of the East
1925 The Fighting Heart
1926 Fig Leaves
1927 7th Heaven
1927 East Side, West Side
1927 Is Zat So?
1927 Ladies Must Dress
1927 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927 The Loves of Carmen
1927 Tumbling River
1927 Upstream
1928 A Girl in Every Port
1928 Fazil
1928 Mother Knows Best
1928 Romance of the Underworld
1928 Street Angel
1929 Happy Days
1929 Lucky Star
1929 Not Quite Decent
1929 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1929 Strong Boy
1929 The Black Watch
1929 The Far Call
1929 The River
1929 The Valiant
1929 They Had to See Paris
1930 City Girl
1930 Common Clay
1930 High Society Blues
1930 Oh, for a Man!
1930 Such Men Are Dangerous
1930 Up the River
1931 Annabelle's Affairs
1931 Do You Know Your Wife?
1931 Law of the Harem
1931 Quick Millions
1931 Six Cylinder Love
1931 Slaves of Fashion
1931 The Big Trail
1931 There Were Thirteen
1931 You have to marry the prince
1932 Disorderly Conduct
1932 Rackety Rax
1932 She Wanted a Millionaire
1932 Society Girl
1932 The Painted Woman
1932 Wild Girl
1932 Young America
1933 Hoopla
1933 It's Great to Be Alive
1934 Caravane
1935 Silk Hat Kid
1941 South of Tahiti
Writer:
1915 A Fool There Was
1915 Anna Karenina
1916 A Daughter of the Gods
1916 East Lynne
1916 The Eternal Sapho
1917 Cleopatra
1917 The Darling of Paris
1917 The Honor System
1918 Salome
1920 His Noisy Still
1920 Just Pals
1920 The Strongest
1921 Jackie
1922 Little Miss Smiles
1922 Monte Cristo
1922 Step Lively, Please
1923 Hoodman Blind
1923 If Winter Comes
1923 Jungle Pals
1923 The Face on the Barroom Floor
1923 Unreal News Reel
1924 Flames of Desire
1924 Gold Heels
1924 Hearts of Oak
1924 Love Letters
1924 The Shadow of the East
1925 The Fighting Heart
1926 Fig Leaves
1927 7th Heaven
1927 Cradle Snatchers
1927 East Side, West Side
1927 Is Zat So?
1927 Ladies Must Dress
1927 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927 The Loves of Carmen
1927 Tumbling River
1927 Upstream
1928 A Girl in Every Port
1928 Fazil
1928 Mother Knows Best
1928 Romance of the Underworld
1928 Street Angel
1929 Happy Days
1929 Lucky Star
1929 Not Quite Decent
1929 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1929 Strong Boy
1929 The Black Watch
1929 The Far Call
1929 The River
1929 The Valiant
1929 They Had to See Paris
1930 City Girl
1930 Common Clay
1930 High Society Blues
1930 Oh, for a Man!
1930 Such Men Are Dangerous
1930 Up the River
1931 Annabelle's Affairs
1931 Do You Know Your Wife?
1931 Law of the Harem
1931 Quick Millions
1931 Six Cylinder Love
1931 Slaves of Fashion
1931 The Big Trail
1931 There Were Thirteen
1931 You have to marry the prince
1932 Disorderly Conduct
1932 Rackety Rax
1932 She Wanted a Millionaire
1932 Society Girl
1932 The Painted Woman
1932 Wild Girl
1932 Young America
1933 Hoopla
1933 It's Great to Be Alive
1934 Caravane
1935 Silk Hat Kid
1941 South of Tahiti
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.