Biography
William Goetz was an American film producer and studio executive. Born in Philadelphia in 1903, he entered the industry in the 1920s and became an associate producer at Fox Films by 1930. In 1932 he was a co-founder and vice-president of Twentieth Century Pictures with Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck; the company merged with Fox in 1935 to form 20th Century-Fox, where Goetz served as vice-president.
Goetz later headed production at Universal-International and formed his own company, William Goetz Productions, in 1953. He produced or served as executive producer on films including The House of Rothschild (1934), Lifeboat (1944), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Jane Eyre (1943), The Man from Laramie (1955), Sayonara (1957) and Autumn Leaves (1956). He was married to Edith Mayer, daughter of Louis B. Mayer, and died in Los Angeles in 1969.
