Breen was raised in a strict Roman Catholic home and attended Gesu Parish School until the eighth grade.
[6] In 1933, the Roman Catholic National Legion of Decency was founded, and began to rate films independently, putting pressure on the industry.
[8] Hays, who had been in charge of enforcing this voluntary code since 1927, worried that the NLD's efforts could weaken his own power and that of his office, and hurt industry profits.
[10] Liberty Magazine wrote in 1936 that Breen's appointment gave him "more influence in standardizing world thinking than Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin.
"[12] Breen wrote antisemitic letters in the early 1930s including phrases like "Ninety-five percent of these folks are Jews of an Eastern European lineage.
[16] Breen, who also expressed antisemitic views,[17] was deeply worried that Jewish filmmakers would try to use Nazi mistreatment of Jews during the 1930s as a vehicle for propaganda.
Breen pressured Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to drop plans to film Sinclair Lewis's best-selling anti-fascist novel, It Can't Happen Here after insisting on 60 edits with more to follow.
"[15] Breen did not issue a statement against antisemitism until July 1939, which said, in part, "In my judgement there is nothing more important for us Catholics to do at the present moment than to use our energies in stemming the tide of racial bigotry and hostility.
[25] On his retirement he was presented with an honorary Academy Award[1] for "his conscientious, open-minded and dignified management of the Motion Picture Production Code".
He died at the age of 77 on December 5, 1965, at the Brentwood Convalescent Home in Los Angeles and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.
"[5] The trade magazine went on to say that Breen enforced the PCA code "with a potent mix of missionary zeal and administrative tenacity.