Zaentz obit

SAUL ZAENTZ, a renowned figure in the film business and a running joke in the music industry, died Friday at his San Francisco apartment after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease; he was 92. The longtime time owner of Fantasy Records famously sued John Fogerty, alleging he’d plagiarized himself (Zaentz lost, though the confrontation twisted the onetime Creedence leader into knots for a quarter century), but he distinguished himself after becoming a movie producer in 1972 at the age of 50. Extremely discriminating in his projects, Zaentz produced just 10 films, but three of them—One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient—won Best Picture Oscars. (1/6a)