Biography
Jesse L. Lasky was an American film producer and a founder of what became Paramount Pictures. Born in San Francisco in 1880, he began his career in vaudeville and as a producer of Broadway shows before entering the film industry.
In 1913 he co-founded the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company with Cecil B. DeMille and Samuel Goldwyn. Their first release, The Squaw Man (1913), was among the earliest feature films made in Hollywood. The company merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players in 1916 to form Famous Players-Lasky, later Paramount, where Lasky served as vice-president in charge of production until 1932.
As an independent producer he worked for several studios. His credits include The White Parade (1934) and Sergeant York (1941), both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He died in Beverly Hills in 1958.
