After a career in journalism (as a reporter, copy editor, assistant drama critic and magazine writer) and publishing, and after a long-tenure as an executive with 20th Century Fox's story department and creative affairs operations from 1952-71 and a brief spell as a Warner Bros. executive, founded the successful Zanuck/Brown production company in 1972 with Richard Zanuck, a 20th Century Fox colleague and son of his former employer, Darryl F. Zanuck. Beginning with its first film, "The Sting" (1973), the team produced such notable fare as Steven Spielberg's "The Sugarland Express" (1974) and "Jaws" (1977), Sidney Lumet's "The Verdict" (1982) and Ron Howard's "Cocoon" (1985) before disbanding in 1988. Brown served as executive producer on "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), the first production of the new Zanuck Company and founded his own new production company, The Manhattan Project Ltd. in 1988. Married to third wife, COSMOPOLITAN magazine editor, Helen Gurley Brown since 1959.