Joseph I. Breen
E386725
Joseph I. Breen was an influential American film censor who rigorously enforced the Hollywood Production Code, shaping the content and moral standards of U.S. cinema from the 1930s through the 1950s.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Joseph I. Breen canonical | 3 |
| Joseph Ignatius Breen | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2173418 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Joseph I. Breen Context triple: [Production Code Administration, headOfOrganization, Joseph I. Breen]
-
A.
William A. Shea
William A. Shea was an American lawyer and civic leader best known for spearheading the return of National League baseball to New York City, leading to the founding of the New York Mets and the naming of Shea Stadium in his honor.
-
B.
Edward P. Doherty
Edward P. Doherty was a U.S. Army officer best known for leading the detachment that captured and killed President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, at a farm near Port Royal, Virginia.
-
C.
Arthur E. Molloy
Arthur E. Molloy was an individual significant enough in marine or exploratory history to have the undersea feature Molloy Deep named in his honor.
-
D.
Patrick H. McCarren
Patrick H. McCarren was a prominent early 20th-century Brooklyn politician and New York State senator known for his influence in local Democratic Party politics.
-
E.
Joseph B. Keenan
Joseph B. Keenan was an American lawyer and U.S. Assistant Attorney General who served as the chief prosecutor in the post–World War II Tokyo war crimes trials.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Joseph I. Breen Target entity description: Joseph I. Breen was an influential American film censor who rigorously enforced the Hollywood Production Code, shaping the content and moral standards of U.S. cinema from the 1930s through the 1950s.
-
A.
William A. Shea
William A. Shea was an American lawyer and civic leader best known for spearheading the return of National League baseball to New York City, leading to the founding of the New York Mets and the naming of Shea Stadium in his honor.
-
B.
Edward P. Doherty
Edward P. Doherty was a U.S. Army officer best known for leading the detachment that captured and killed President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, at a farm near Port Royal, Virginia.
-
C.
Arthur E. Molloy
Arthur E. Molloy was an individual significant enough in marine or exploratory history to have the undersea feature Molloy Deep named in his honor.
-
D.
Patrick H. McCarren
Patrick H. McCarren was a prominent early 20th-century Brooklyn politician and New York State senator known for his influence in local Democratic Party politics.
-
E.
Joseph B. Keenan
Joseph B. Keenan was an American lawyer and U.S. Assistant Attorney General who served as the chief prosecutor in the post–World War II Tokyo war crimes trials.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American
ⓘ
film censor ⓘ person ⓘ |
| activeYears |
1930s
ⓘ
1940s ⓘ 1950s ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | Joe Breen ⓘ |
| appliedTo | Hollywood films released by major studios ⓘ |
| birthDate | 1888-10-14 ⓘ |
| birthPlace |
Philadelphia
ⓘ
surface form:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
|
| causeOfDeath | cancer ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| deathDate | 1965-12-05 ⓘ |
| education | St. Joseph's College High School (Philadelphia) ⓘ |
| employer |
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America
ⓘ
Production Code Administration ⓘ |
| endTime | 1954 ⓘ |
| enforced |
Motion Picture Production Code
ⓘ
surface form:
Hollywood Production Code
|
| familyName | Breen ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
film regulation
ⓘ
motion picture censorship ⓘ |
| fullName |
Joseph I. Breen
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Joseph Ignatius Breen
|
| genreRegulated |
feature films
ⓘ
short films ⓘ |
| givenName | Joseph ⓘ |
| influenced |
Hollywood studio production practices
ⓘ
portrayal of sex and violence in American films ⓘ representation of crime and morality in U.S. cinema ⓘ |
| knownFor |
enforcement of the Hollywood Production Code
ⓘ
shaping moral standards of American cinema in the 1930s and 1940s ⓘ |
| languageSpoken | English ⓘ |
| memberOf | Production Code Administration ⓘ |
| notableEvent |
appointment as head of Production Code Administration in 1934
ⓘ
retirement from Production Code Administration in 1954 ⓘ |
| notableWork | implementation of strict content guidelines for Hollywood films ⓘ |
| numberOfChildren | 6 ⓘ |
| occupation |
film censor
ⓘ
journalist ⓘ publicist ⓘ |
| partOf | Hollywood Production Code era ⓘ |
| positionHeld | head of the Production Code Administration ⓘ |
| religion | Roman Catholicism ⓘ |
| residence |
Los Angeles
ⓘ
surface form:
Los Angeles, California, United States
Philadelphia ⓘ
surface form:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
|
| spouse | Mary Genevieve McGovern NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| startTime | 1934 ⓘ |
| workLocation |
Hollywood, California, United States
ⓘ
Los Angeles, California, United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
Los Angeles, California, United States
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Joseph I. Breen Description of subject: Joseph I. Breen was an influential American film censor who rigorously enforced the Hollywood Production Code, shaping the content and moral standards of U.S. cinema from the 1930s through the 1950s.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Joseph Ignatius Breen