Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, with hyphen, from 1935 to 1985)—also known as 20th Century Fox, or 20th Century Fox Pictures, is one of the six major American film studios as of 2011. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio is currently a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
The company was founded on May 31, 1935, as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph M. Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz.
Twentieth Century Fox's most popular film franchises include Charlie Chan, Star Wars, X-Men, Ice Age, Die Hard, Predator, Alien, Planet of the Apes, Home Alone, plus TV shows such as Batman, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, Cops, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad!, and 24. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star, Dorothy Dandridge.