Jesse Louis Lasky, Sr. (September 13, 1880 – January 13, 1958) was a pioneer Hollywood film producer, a key founder of
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
with
Adolph ZukorAdolph Zukor, born Adolph Cukor, was a film mogul and founder of Paramount Pictures.-Early life:...
, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
Born in
San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
, he worked at a variety of jobs but began his entertainment career as a
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performer that led to the motion picture business. His sister Blanche married
Samuel GoldwynSamuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
and in 1913 Lasky and Goldwyn teamed with
Cecil B. DeMilleCecil Blount DeMille was a legendary American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies.-Early life:...
and
Oscar ApfelOscar C. Apfel was an American film actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He appeared in 167 films between 1913 and 1939, and also directed 94 films between 1911 and 1927.-Biography:...
to form the Jesse L.
Jesse Louis Lasky, Sr. (September 13, 1880 – January 13, 1958) was a pioneer Hollywood film producer, a key founder of
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
with
Adolph ZukorAdolph Zukor, born Adolph Cukor, was a film mogul and founder of Paramount Pictures.-Early life:...
, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
Biography
Born in
San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
, he worked at a variety of jobs but began his entertainment career as a
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performer that led to the motion picture business. His sister Blanche married
Samuel GoldwynSamuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
and in 1913 Lasky and Goldwyn teamed with
Cecil B. DeMilleCecil Blount DeMille was a legendary American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies.-Early life:...
and
Oscar ApfelOscar C. Apfel was an American film actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He appeared in 167 films between 1913 and 1939, and also directed 94 films between 1911 and 1927.-Biography:...
to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. With limited funds, they rented a barn near
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
where they made Hollywood's first
feature filmIn the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the "main attraction" of the screening...
, DeMille's
The Squaw Man. Known today as the
Lasky-DeMille BarnThe Lasky-DeMille Barn is one of Hollywood's first film studios and a designated California State Historic Landmark. It is now the site of the Hollywood Heritage Museum.-History:...
, it is home to the
Hollywood Heritage MuseumThe Hollywood Heritage Museum, also known as the "Hollywood Studio Museum," is located on Highland Ave. in Hollywood, California, USA.The museum is opposite the Hollywood Bowl and is housed in the restored Lasky-DeMille Barn, which was acquired in February 1983 by Hollywood Heritage, Inc., and...
.
In 1916 their company merged with Adolph Zukor's
Famous Players Film CompanyThe Famous Players Film Company was founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor in partnership with the Frohman brothers, the powerful New York City theatre impresarios. It established a studio on 26th Street in New York City that today is Chelsea Studios....
to create the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. They built a large studio facility in Astoria, New York, now known as the
Kaufman Astoria StudiosThe Kaufman Astoria Studios is located in Queens, New York, and makes television shows including Sesame Street, Johnny and the Sprites, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, and its successor Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, Power of 10, The Cosby Show, Swan's Crossing, Law & Order, Million...
. In 1927, Lasky was one of the thirty-six people who founded the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures....
.
Financial problems arose within the industry as a result of the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and the Famous Players-Lasky Company went into receivership in 1933. Jesse Lasky then partnered with
Mary PickfordMary Pickford was a Canadian motion picture actor, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Known as "America's Sweetheart," "Little Mary" and "The girl with the curls," she was one of the first Canadian...
to produce films but within a few years she dissolved their business relationship. Lasky then found work as a producer at one of the big studios until 1945 when he formed his own production company. He made his last film in 1951 and in 1957 published his autobiography,
I Blow My Own Horn.
Lasky died in 1958 of a heart attack in Beverly Hills. Lasky was interred in the
Hollywood Forever CemeteryHollywood Forever Cemetery is at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywooddistrict of Los Angeles, California. It is adjacent to the north wall, or back, of Paramount Studios, who, with RKO Studios, bought by 1920. The Beth Olam Cemetery in the southwestern section of the cemetery is for...
, adjacent to Paramount Studios, in Hollywood.
Legacy
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Lasky has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, that serves as an entertainment museum...
at 6433 Hollywood Blvd. Lasky Drive in
Beverly HillsBeverly Hills is a city in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles. The area's "Platinum Triangle" of wealthy neighborhoods is formed by Beverly Hills and...
was named in his honor.