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
Brown Institute for Media Innovation to as the Brown Institute. The institute was created in 2012 following a $30 million endowment made to Stanford University and Columbia Universities by Helen Gurley Brown. Gurley Brown, an author, publisher, and businesswoman, who served as editor-in-chief of "Cosmpolitan" magazine for over three decades, partially endowed the institute in memory of her husband, David Brown, who produced the films "Jaws", "The Sting", and "The Verdict", among others, and attended both Stanford and Columbia. Speaking of the institute's purpose, Gurley Brown stated, "David and I have long supported and encouraged bright young people to follow their passions and to create