Carl Laemmle (born Karl Lämmle; January 17, 1867 – September 24, 1939) was a German-American film producer and the co-founder and, until 1934, owner of Universal Pictures. Laemmle, along with Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, William Fox, and the Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack), was part of the group of Eastern European immigrant Jews that founded the movie industry in Hollywood, California in the first decades of the 20th century. Laemmle produced or worked on more than 400 films. Regarded as one of the most important of the early film pioneers, Laemmle was born in what is now Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1884 and worked in Chicago for 20 years before he began buying nickelodeons, eventually expanding into a film distribution service, the Laemmle Film Service, then into production as Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), later renamed Universal Film Manufacturing Company, and later still renamed Universal Pictures Company.