It would seem almost preordained that the son of legendary studio head Darryl F. Zanuck would pursue a career in the film industry. While still in college, Richard D Zanuck began working in the story department at 20th Century-Fox and immediately after graduating was appointed as vice president of Darryl F. Zanuck Productions. He trained in film work assisting his famous father on "The Sun Also Rises" (1956) and "Islands in the Sun" (1957) before producing his first feature, "Compulsion" (1959), at age 24. Zanuck followed with two uneven but fairly prestigious productions: "Sanctuary" (1961), based on the William Faulkner novel, and "The Chapman Report" (1964). By the time of the latter's release, though, he was ensconced in the executive suites of 20th Century-Fox. During his reign as head of production, the studio accumulated over 150 Oscar nominations, and released three Best Picture winners, "The Sound of Music" (1965), "Patton" (1970) and "The French Connection" (1971). Despite those successes, the company's continuing fiscal problems prompted his father to fire him in 1970. Zanuck moved on to other executive posts, harboring no ill will towards his sire, whom he lauds as "the best executive I ever worked for. He taught me everything." After serving briefly as senior executive vice president at Warner Bros., he formed the Zanuck/Brown Company with longtime associate David Brown in 1972.

The pair scored immediately with their first collaboration, the Oscar-winning Best Picture "The Sting" (1973), and then proved themselves remarkable judges of talent, breaking Steven Spielberg in as a feature director with "The Sugarland Express" (1974) and "Jaws" (1975, Oscar-nominated as Best Picture). They also produced "The Verdict" (1982, another Best Picture nominee) and "Cocoon" (1985, adding third wife Lili Finn Zanuck to the mix). Dissolving his partnership with Brown in 1988, he formed the Zanuck Company the following year. The first release under his new banner offered an auspicious start. With his wife, Zanuck produced the screen adaptation of Alfred Uhry's award-winning play "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), which was selected as the year's Best Picture by the Academy. Despite going their separate ways creatively, Brown and Zanuck remained close (Brown served as executive producer on "Miss Daisy"). Indeed, the pair reteamed to produce DreamWorks' blockbuster "Deep Impact" (1998) and they have spoken about working together again on yet another as yet unannounced, untitled DreamWorks' project. Zanuck, who produced his wife's directing debut "Rush" (1991), also shared producing responsibilities with her and Clint Eastwood on Eastwood's "True Crime" (1999).