Penniless immigrant turned successful glove salesman who entered films in 1912, persuading his father-in-law, impressario Jesse Lasky, to establish a production and distribution company. Together with C. B. DeMille as director, they formed the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company and scored a huge success with their first film, "The Squaw Man" (1914). In 1916 they merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players, but infighting inspired Goldfish to leave and start afresh, forming the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation with Edgar Selwyn and others. Goldwyn's policy of enlisting only the best available talent
