Jesse L. Lasky

Impresario who formed the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company with brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn) and Cecil B. DeMille in 1913. The success of their 1914 production, "Squaw Man," put both the company and Hollywood on the map. Following a series of mergers, first with Adolph Zukor's company in 1916, the consolidated outfit was rechristened as Paramount and went on to became a major Hollywood studio. In 1932, Lasky was forced out of the organization he had helped to found and embarked on a moderately successful career as an independent producer. Lasky's son, Jesse Jr. (1908-1988), was an author and screenwriter ("Samson and Delilah" 1949, "The Ten Commandments" 1956).