Jack L. Warner

Jacob Warner came from Canada and planted himself in Burbank, where he and his brother Sam brought sound to film with The Jazz Singer in 1927. After Sam died, Jack spent decades clashing with his surviving brothers Harry and Albert until the 1950s, when he convinced them to sell their stock jointly - then secretly bought them out for himself. He had a taste for hard-edged social dramas and Roosevelt-era politics despite being a staunch Republican, railed against Nazi Germany before the war, then named suspected communists to the House Un-American Activities Committee after it. His employees feared him, his jokes landed poorly, but his instincts for talent and story kept him ahead. He stayed until the early 1970s, outlasting every other studio founder.