Saul Zaentz, the Oscar winning producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and several other classic films, died on Friday at the age of 92 from Alzheimer's Disease in his San Francisco home. Zaentz started his career as he ended it; a gambler who knew when the odds were in his favor. The New Jersey native started gambling in his youth and settled in San Francisco after he left the Army during World War Two. In 1955, the Beat scene hit San Francisco like a wave and Zaentz rode it working as a distributor for Fantasy Records, which focused primarily on jazz music before buying the label in 1967. By 1967, psychedelic rock filled the streets of San Francisco and Zaentz signed one of his most famous clients to Fantasy Records, Creedence Clearwater Revival.
From 1967 to 1973, Fantasy Records rode high on the success of Creedence Clearwater Revival's record sales until Zaentz wanted to get into financing films; his first film he produced was the classic adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The story of a convicted felon liberating an Oregon mental institution earned 5 Academy Awards in 1976, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay, a feat that hadn't been accomplished since 1934 when Frank Capra's It Happened One Night swept the Oscars.
Zaentz collaborated with Cuckoo's Nest director, Milos Forman, again in 1984 for the film adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play, Amadeus; the film earned 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Zaentz struck gold again when he produced Anthony Minghella's Oscar winning film of 1996, The English Patient. Along with film, Zaentz produced a musical version of Lord of the Rings in 2004.
Zaentz once said, "You don't make movies to be art movies. You make movies that move you emotionally because if you're going to commit five years of your life to a movie, you need something to keep you going." In the canon of iconic film producers, from Zanuck and Weinstein, Saul Zaentz's name shines brightly like the art he appreciated whether in the recording studio, or on the big screen
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