13 Facts About Joseph Breen

1.

Joseph Ignatius Breen was an American film censor with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America who applied the Hays Code to film production.

2.

Joseph Breen's father had emigrated from Ireland and met his mother Mary in New Jersey.

3.

Joseph Breen attended Saint Joseph's College but dropped out after two years, after which he worked as a newspaper reporter for fourteen years in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Chicago.

4.

Joseph Breen was a journalist and an "influential layperson" in the Catholic community.

5.

Hence he applauded the fact that Joseph Breen had assumed the power to censor Hollywood.

6.

Joseph Breen, who expressed anti-Semitic views, was deeply worried that Jewish filmmakers would try to use Nazi mistreatment of Jews during the 1930s as a vehicle for propaganda.

7.

Joseph Breen was concerned that Germans would be offended by harsh depiction of Nazis.

Related searches
Howard Hughes
8.

Quigley asked Joseph Breen to help gather statements of support from Catholics in the Hollywood film industry.

9.

Around the same time, Howard Hughes, owner of RKO, released The French Line, featuring revealing images of actress Jane Russell in a bathing suit, despite the fact that Joseph Breen had refused to approve the picture for release.

10.

In 1951, Joseph Breen's office refused to approve Otto Preminger's film The Moon Is Blue because of objections to the dialogue.

11.

Joseph Breen married Mary Dervin in February 1914, with whom he had six children, three boys and three girls.

12.

Joseph Breen suffered from poor health in his later years and eventually lost the use of his legs.

13.

Joseph Breen died at the age of 77 on December 5,1965, at the Brentwood Convalescent Home in Los Angeles and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.