3. Richard D. Zanuck
Great movie producers are always good at corralling the insanity of a writer, director, and their actors and bringing them together in holy cinematic glory, and few were better at this than Richard D. Zanuck, who produced such landmark works as Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy, Mulholland Falls, and Road to Perdition. A common acquaintance of Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton, in his time as a producer, Zanuck was able to craft a fundamental piece of modern cinema, creating astonishing works of art with his directors and writers. Even before I knew what a producer was, I recognised the name of Richard D. Zanuck; I always knew that he was very important to the cinema world, and his loss will be dearly missed.