Universal, American film production company, based in Hollywood, California, founded by Carl Laemmle in 1912. Initially it worked out of two studios and then, in 1915, moved to one site in the San Fernando Valley, called Universal City. Its stars included Rudolph Valentino, Lon Chaney, Wallace Reid, and Boris Karloff. Among its directors were John Ford and Erich von Stroheim. A number of influential films were produced by Universal in the 1930s, including All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, directed by Lewis Milestone), Frankenstein (1931, James Whale), and Dracula (1931, Tod Browning).

Laemmle lost control in 1936 when the studio ran into financial trouble. The company was saved by a series of popular films, such as the musicals produced by Joe Pasternak and directed by Henry Koster, starring Deanna Durbin, Three Smart Girls (1936) and 100 Men and a Girl (1937); the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (1936, Gregory La Cava); and the comedies of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. After 1945, mergers and takeovers transformed the company. It became Universal-International in 1946 and in 1952, when Decca Records took control, reverted to its old name. Its production turned to prestige comedies and dramas, such as those directed by Douglas Sirk, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson.

Decca, in turn, became a subsidiary of the Music Corporation of America and, in 1966, Universal became the feature film division of Universal City Studios, which was by then primarily devoted to making television series. Films such as Airport (1970, George Seaton), The Sting (1973, George Roy Hill), American Graffiti (1973, George Lucas), The Deer Hunter (1978, Michael Cimino), and the long run of Steven Spielberg successes, from Jaws (1975) to Jurassic Park (1993), have given it a central position in modern Hollywood. As with other production companies in the 1980s, it found itself vulnerable to takeover and, in 1990, it became part of the Matsushita conglomerate.