Saul Zaentz

As of 2018, holds the record (along with Sam Spiegel) of winning the Academy Award for Best Picture three times, for producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984) and The English Patient (1996).

Producing the Musical version of "Lord of the Rings" to open in London in the Spring of 2005. This will be the most expensive and complex stage show ever staged anywhere in the world. [March 2004]

In order to light all the opera house chandeliers in Amadeus (1984), Zaentz contacted the Vatican's candlemaker, who agreed to supply the production with the thousands of candles necessary for the scene.

Saul Zaentz learned gambling as a youth in Passaic, New Jersey, playing a card game called briscola. Later, in his twenties, he earned a full-time living as a gambler. Saul settled in San Francisco after WWII, at first working for a local record distributor and eventually joining the jazz record label Fantasy Records. Working as a salesman and manager for years at Fantasy taught him the value of good relationships with vendors and distributors. This approach greatly affected his approach to the movie business. Saul and a group of partners bought Fantasy Records in 1967. Fantasy was a successful independent record label, but Saul wanted to expand, to make films. He and his partners worked very hard to cultivate deals with film distribution houses all over the world.