Four Star Television

Four Star Television, also called Four Star International, was an American television production company. The company was incorporated in 1959 as a successor to Four Star Productions, Inc., founded in 1952 by prominent Hollywood actors Dick Powell, David Niven, Joel McCrea, and Charles Boyer. McCrea left the company soon after, and was replaced with Ida Lupino as the fourth star, even though she did not own any stock in the company.

Four Star produced many well-known shows of the early days of television, including Four Star Playhouse (their first series), Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, Stagecoach West, The June Allyson Show (aka The DuPont Show Starring June Allyson), The Dick Powell Show, Burke's Law, The Rogues and The Big Valley. Despite each of its four stars sharing equal billing, it was Powell who played the biggest role in the success of the company's growth.

Within a few years of Four Star's formation, Powell became President of the company. In 1955 Four Star Films, Inc., was formed as an affiliate organization to produce shows as The Rifleman, Trackdown, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Richard Diamond, Private Detective and The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor. There were also failed series, like Jeannie Carson's Hey, Jeannie! In the late winter of 1958, both Four Star Productions and Four Star Films were merged into Four Star Television, which began publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange on January 12, 1959.