J. Arthur Rank

J. Arthur Rank (1888–1972) was a British industrialist and film producer who founded the Rank Organisation in 1937, the precursor to today's gambling operator The Rank Group. Born in Hull as the youngest son of a wealthy miller, he became a director of the family flour business in 1915. A devout Methodist, he initially used film for religious education, founding the Religious Film Society in 1933.

He then entered commercial film production, co‑founding British National in 1934 and producing Turn of the Tide (1935). Frustrated by Hollywood’s distribution monopoly, he formed the General Cinema Finance Corporation (1935) and took a large stake in Universal Pictures, serving as its chairman from 1938. In 1937 he consolidated his interests into the Rank Organisation, which became the dominant force in British cinema, owning Pinewood Studios, the Odeon and Gaumont cinema chains, and producing acclaimed films by directors such as David Lean and Carol Reed.

The company later diversified into leisure and, from the 1990s, focused on gambling, becoming today’s The Rank Group – the UK’s largest casino operator (Grosvenor Casinos, Mecca Bingo, Rank Interactive). Rank died in 1972.