David Brown (producer) editor of "Cosmopolitan" before his wife, Helen Gurley Brown, joined the magazine. In 1951, the producer Darryl F. Zanuck hired Brown to head the story department at Zanuck's studio, 20th Century-Fox. Brown eventually rose to become executive vice president of creative operations. He and Richard D. Zanuck, Darryl's son, left Fox in 1971 for Warner Bros., but the following year they set out to form their own production company. The caper film "The Sting" (1973) starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford was a Zanuck/Brown "presentation". In 1974, the company produced, along with Universal Pictures, "The Sugarland Express", Steven Spielberg's directorial
Helen Gurley Brown dreams she addressed so brilliantly in print." Brown's husband David preceded her in death, passing away on February 1, 2010 at the age of 93. In late November 2012, Brown and her husband were buried in adjacent graves at Sisco Cemetery, her maternal family cemetery, in Carroll County, Arkansas. Seven months prior to her death, continuing the work started with her husband in forming the Helen Gurley Brown Trust, Brown established the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. This institution is housed at both the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford's Engineering School. Their $38 million donation to the