Rank, Lord (1888-1972), Joseph Arthur Rank, was a major figure in the British motion-picture industry. The company that he developed, the J. Arthur Rank Organization, eventually had wide interests in dance halls, tenpin bowling, and photocopying machines.
Rank was born on Dec. 22, 1888, in Hull, England. He entered the motion-picture industry in 1933 to encourage the making of religious movies. But his interests soon widened. By the mid-1940’s, his company controlled more than half the movie studios in the United Kingdom and owned more than 1,000 movie theaters. The J. Arthur Rank Organization also made many feature movies. Rank was made a baron in 1957. He died on March 29, 1972.
