Short answers, pulled from the story.
Saul Zaentz won the Academy Award for Best Picture three times: for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), directed by Milos Forman; Amadeus (1984), also directed by Forman; and The English Patient (1996), directed by Anthony Minghella. At the same ceremony where The English Patient won, Zaentz also received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in film.
The dispute grew out of Fogerty's time at Fantasy Records, which Zaentz controlled after a 1967 purchase. Fogerty alleged the label's investments caused devastating financial losses for Creedence Clearwater Revival, while Zaentz sued Fogerty for defamation over lyrics on the 1985 album Centerfield and separately for plagiarism, seeking $140 million in the plagiarism case. In 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Fogerty v. Fantasy, 510 U.S. 517, confirming Fogerty's right to recover attorney fees.
Saul Zaentz acquired the rights from United Artists in 1976; United Artists had purchased them directly from J. R. R. Tolkien eight years earlier. The rights covered film, stage, and merchandise for both novels, along with matching rights over The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales. The Saul Zaentz Company eventually sold the rights to Embracer Group, which announced the purchase on the 18th of August 2022.
Saul Zaentz died on the 3rd of January 2014 in San Francisco, California, at age 92. The cause was complications from Alzheimer's disease.
On the 17th of May 2016, the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, which had launched in 1997, gave $35.5 million to Harvard's Graduate School of Education. The school described it as the largest gift in its history dedicated to advancing early childhood education.
Saul Zaentz began his career in the music industry, working at Jazz at the Philharmonic under Norman Granz, managing concert tours for musicians including Duke Ellington and Stan Getz. He joined Fantasy Records in 1955 and helped lead a group that purchased the label from its founders, Max and Sol Weiss, in 1967.