Tag Archives: Obituaries

Entertainment

Pauly Shore, More Remember Richard Simmons

Leave a comment

Pauly Shore is paying tribute to Richard Simmons, the movie star health guru, who died Saturday at 76 years outdated.

Simmons, an brisk persona who starred on his personal syndicated TV train present within the Eighties, died at his dwelling in Los Angeles, his rep advised The Hollywood Reporter.

Shore, who is about to star in a biopic about Simmons that the health icon had beforehand blasted, wrote on Instagram, “I simply obtained phrase like everybody else that the gorgeous Richard Simmons has handed. I hope you’re at peace and twinkling up within the heavens.”

“Please give my mom Mitzi and my father Sammy an enormous hug and a kiss for me,” the comic and actor continued. “You’re one in all a form, Richard. An incredible life. An incredible story. They broke the dolphin shorts after they made you. Relaxation in peace, my buddy. Relaxation in peace.”

Simmons had continued to distance himself from the biopic, backed by the Wolper Group, saying in January that he didn’t give Shore “permission” for it. The health guru additionally mentioned he was in talks with studios himself to work on his personal, separate, biopic about his life.

Shore had additionally portrayed Simmons in The Court docket Jester, a separate brief movie written and directed by Jordan Allen-Dutton.

Ricki Lake additionally remembered Simmons on X, previously Twitter, writing, “My coronary heart is damaged with the lack of this tremendous particular human. Might he RIP. #richardsimmons I liked him so a lot.” She additionally shared a photograph of herself, Simmons and Maria Menounos.

Whose Line Is It Anyway‘s Greg Proops shared in a tribute, “Richard Simmons was a stunning man. Gracious and humorous. Possible our hottest visitor.” And Gloria Gaynor wrote in a submit on X, “Considering of the household and family members of Richard Simmons @TheWeightSaint … he introduced a lot pleasure, happiness and life altering moments to so many by his unstoppable drive to make a optimistic distinction in folks’s lives.”

Entertainment

Celebrity Fitness Guru Was 76

Leave a comment

Richard Simmons, the goofy clown prince of health who turned his ardour for weight reduction into riches and fame as a Hollywood movie star, has died. He was 76.

A rep for Simmons instructed The Hollywood Reporter that he died earlier Saturday at his residence in Los Angeles. His reason for loss of life wasn’t instantly accessible.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Division confirmed that personnel responded to a 911 name from Simmons’ residence on Belfast Drive and arrived there at 9:57 a.m. on Saturday. The spokesperson added that “an investigation remains to be being carried out.”

“I don’t need folks to be unhappy about my brother,” Lenny Simmons, Richard’s brother, shared in an announcement.” I would like them to recollect him for the real pleasure and love he dropped at folks’s lives. He really cared about folks. He known as, wrote, and emailed hundreds of individuals all through his profession to supply assist. So don’t be unhappy. Rejoice his life.”

The star of his personal syndicated TV train present within the Eighties, the curly-haired Simmons bought tens of millions of aerobics “Sweatin‘ to the Oldies” movies and DVDs. 

At his peak, Simmons, who sported too-short shorts and a shiny tank prime with Swarovski crystals throughout his exercises, flew across the nation making motivational speeches and conducting health courses for rapt followers.

In 1980, he revealed Richard Simmons’ By no means-Say-Weight loss program Ebook, an enormous best-seller that had chapters like “Coming to Grips With Your Hips” and “Learn how to Eat Out and Not Pig Out.”

Simmons went on to seem as himself on such collection as Arrested Improvement, Superb Tales, CHiPs, The Larry Sanders Present and Normal Hospital and was a frequent visitor/foil on The Howard Stern Present and on David Letterman’s late evening speak exhibits.

Later, he voiced the character Coach Salmons on the 2010-12 Disney Channel animated collection Fish Hooks.

Simmons was born Milton Teagle Simmons in New Orleans on July 12, 1948, grew up within the French Quarter and bought pralines on the road. He was chubby as a child and mentioned he weighed almost 270 kilos when he graduated highschool.

After spending a while in Europe, he mentioned that he discovered an nameless notice on the windshield of his automotive in 1968 that learn: “Expensive Richard: Fats folks die younger. Please don’t die.”

Simmons vowed to get in form and, at 5-foot-7, acquired right down to about 150 kilos. He headed west and introduced his weight-loss message to Beverly Hills, opening a mix train studio (Anatomy Asylum) and restaurant (Ruffage) in 1974. His clientele included Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman, Cheryl Ladd, Diana Ross and Paul Newman.

In November 2016, Simmons shuttered the studio, most not too long ago known as Slimmons. “The studio is the place my entire profession began,” he wrote on his web site. “I started doing native exhibits within the metropolis. After which I acquired my massive break to play myself on Normal Hospital.”

5 months earlier, Simmons was transported from his residence to a hospital by ambulance after the Los Angeles Fireplace Division responded to a 911 name. He mentioned later that he was dehydrated and instructed his followers to not fear about his well being.

The New York Every day Information reported in March 2016 that he was being held in opposition to his will in his residence. However Simmons, who hadn’t been seen in public in about two years, denied that on the As we speak present. “Nobody is holding me in my home as a hostage,” he mentioned.

In January, Simmons mentioned he didn’t approve of a biopic of his life from The Wolper Group that Pauly Shore would star in. “I’ve by no means given my permission for this film,” he mentioned.

“Whereas we might like to have him concerned,” the filmmakers behind the challenge famous then, “we respect his want to privateness and plan to supply a film that honors him, celebrates him and tells a dramatic story. We all know he’s deeply non-public, and we’d by no means wish to invade that. Nonetheless, he’s a tremendous person who modified tens of millions of individuals’s lives, and the impact he has had on the world must be acknowledged.”

On the eve of his loss of life, Simmons was on Fb, expressing his appreciation to followers for his or her birthday needs. “Thanks … I by no means acquired so many messages about my birthday in my life!” he wrote. “I’m sitting right here writing emails. Have a most lovely remainder of your Friday.”

Christy Piña contributed to this report.

Entertainment

Insurance Broker in Hollywood Was 80

Leave a comment

Shel Bachrach, a prime insurance coverage dealer in Hollywood whose behind-the-scenes work helped films like Cliffhanger, The Individuals vs. Larry Flynt and Ali get made, died Monday in Palm Springs, a publicist introduced. He was 80.

Bachrach offered monetary safety and mitigated dangers related to such potential issues as drug-related filming delays (suppose Courtney Love in The Individuals vs. Larry Flynt), actors who pilot plane (Harrison Ford) and administrators who could possibly be sidelined by age points (David Lean, for his final film, A Passage to India) or medical points (John Huston, who battled emphysema).

Bachrach organized danger administration on stunt-filled movies — if a star is injured throughout manufacturing, a film may grind to a halt — and wrote insurance policies for magicians and “Large Cat” performers in Las Vegas and for sport reveals like The Worth Is Proper, the place contestants can win nice sums of cash.

Born in Detroit on April 7, 1944, Sheldon Jay Bachrach wrote his first leisure insurance coverage coverage in 1983 and shortly developed a fame for “insuring the supposedly uninsurable.”

In 1990, he wrote a life and incapacity coverage valued at greater than $140 million that bought him into the Guinness Ebook of World Data.

Along with the action-packed Cliffhanger (1993), The Individuals vs. Larry Flynt (1996) and the punches-filled Ali (2001), Bachrach offered insurance coverage providers on such different movies as Drugs Man (1992), Colour of Night time (1994), Cutthroat Island (1995), Evita (1996) and The Shadow Conspiracy (1997).

He was president of leisure and excessive web price divisions for USI Holdings (acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2007) and president of Beverly Hills-based Albert G. Rubin Insurance coverage Providers earlier than he launched Bachrach & Associates in 1990.

Bachrach & Associates merged with the Insurance coverage Workplace of America in 2014.

Survivors embrace his spouse of 42 years, Cathy; his kids, Laura, Scott, Ryan and Courtney; and his grandsons, Benjamin, Asher and James.

His household is represented on the board of governors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Middle and have been members of the Amie Karen Most cancers Fund for Kids for 20-plus years and the Help League for greater than a decade.

Entertainment

‘Candid Camera’ Actress, Rod Steiger Wife Was 96

Leave a comment

Joan Benedict, who starred on the unique Steve Allen Present and Candid Digital camera and portrayed the tyrannical resort queen Leona Helmsley in a one-woman stage present, has died. She was 96.

Benedict died June 24 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Heart in Los Angeles of problems from a stroke, a household spokesperson introduced.

Benedict was married to actor John Myhers, who performed personnel man Bert Bratt within the 1967 movie adaptation of How you can Achieve Enterprise With out Actually Attempting, from 1962 till his 1992 loss of life and to Oscar-winning actor Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront, Within the Warmth of the Evening) from 2000 till his loss of life in 2002.

She then had a relationship with actor Jeremy Slate (Hell’s Angels ’69, One Life to Reside) till he died in 2006 from esophageal most cancers at 80.

“Each of my husbands, and my lifetime companion, Jeremy, have been fantastic males who revered me as an actress,” she mentioned in 2016. “All of them died from completely different types of most cancers, so my recollections are typically bittersweet, however with no regrets.”

Benedict was a member of Allen Funt’s inventory firm for Candid Digital camera. In two of her funniest bits for the CBS actuality hit, she wore a feather in her hat and annoyingly tickled males with it as they sat subsequent to her on the airport and made it inconceivable for male passersby to gentle her cigarette in a cellphone sales space.

“Basically, it’s performing,” she mentioned of engaged on the present. “I can’t chuckle or the entire stunt is damaged up.”

Earlier, as a part of the ensemble on NBC’s The Steve Allen Present, she carried out in comedy skits and was the spokesperson for Hazel Bishop cosmetics.

Born in Brooklyn on July 21, 1927, Benedict was raised in a house close to Prospect Park. She first carried out as a faucet dancer at age 7 on the Brooklyn Academy of Music, then studied on the Rome Opera Ballet College, in Paris and with Robert Lewis and Stella Adler at The Actors Studio in New York.

Benedict labored on the community sport present Masquerade Occasion, and for Butterfield 8 (1960), she served because the stand-in for Elizabeth Taylor and performed a psychiatrist’s secretary.

She later confirmed up in The Joyful Hooker Goes to Washington (1977) and on episodes of The Smith Household, Fantasy Island, T.J. Hooker, Resort, The Trials of Rosie O’Neill and Dollhouse and had recurring roles on the cleaning soap operas Normal Hospital, Days of Our Lives and Capitol.

After Myhers’ loss of life at age 70, Benedict reunited with Steiger — the 2 had a quick romance when she was 19 — earlier than she grew to become his fifth spouse. In 2001, they appeared collectively within the movie A Month of Sundays and within the telefilm The Flying Dutchman.

Steiger died at age 77 of problems from surgical procedure for a gallbladder tumor.

Benedict wrote her memoir, Brooklyn Child, revealed in 2016, and along with her work in Leona — the play takes place in a jail cell — she starred in one other one-woman stage present, the autobiographical The Loves of My Life.

Survivors embrace her daughter, Claudia, and her granddaughters, Hanna and Ashley.

Entertainment

‘Titanic’ Producer Jon Landau Remembered by Bill Mechanic

Leave a comment

Veteran movie government Invoice Mechanic shares some recollections about producer Jon Landau, who died on July 5 on the age of 63, and the experiences they shared throughout the making of James Cameron’s 1997 epic Titanic, which was backed by Fox Filmed Leisure when Mechanic was that firm’s chairman and CEO.

* * *

I all the time checked out Jon as a born movie particular person. His dad and mom, Ely and Edie, had been revered producers, and he knew all the things there was to find out about film manufacturing.

After I joined Fox, Jon was the pinnacle of manufacturing, that means he oversaw each movie we produced from the studio’s viewpoint. It was a shock — and a loss — for us when he left the studio to supply Titanic. But it surely was additionally nice understanding that we’d have somebody so educated engaged on a film that promised to be as bold as Jim’s image.

Nobody might have foreseen the difficulties that lay forward with that movie, however even on the hardest moments, Jon was somebody we completely trusted. When there have been arguments about easy methods to forge by to completion, he arbitrated — to the diploma anybody might — between the manufacturing and the studio, and once more made it simpler as a result of each side trusted that each greenback was being spent was within the pursuits of delivering one thing particular.

Reflecting again on that point, these of us closest to the movie believed it had an opportunity to turn out to be not solely successful, however one thing actually nice. There have been, nonetheless, no assurances. The stress stage was off the charts, and there was no query it weighed closely on Jon. However he by no means misplaced his humorousness or decency, as a result of he was a soldier. He remained assured and constructive, whatever the second, and he knew his craft.

All of us had a troublesome journey, nevertheless it’s a press release of how good Jon was that each the studio and the manufacturing felt he was the proper particular person for the job. That film required a lion, and he proved he might roar.

Entertainment

James Cameron, Zoe Saldaña, Peter Jackson Pay Tribute

Leave a comment

James Cameron, Zoe Saldaña, Alan Bergman, Peter Jackson and Avatar: The Means of Water solid and crewmembers are amongst these in Hollywood paying tribute to Jon Landau, who died Friday at 63.

Landau was an Oscar-winning producer, most identified for his collaborations with Cameron on blockbuster movies together with Titanic and the Avatar franchise. His different credit embrace Alita: Battle Angel, Solaris and Honey, I Shrunk the Youngsters.

Cameron remembered his longtime good friend in a press release to The Hollywood Reporter, writing, “An amazing producer and an ideal human being has left us. Jon Landau believed within the dream of cinema. He believed that movie is the final word human artwork kind, and to make movies you need to first be human your self. He might be remembered as a lot for his huge generosity of spirit as for the flicks themselves.”

“I labored with Jon Landau for 31 years and I by no means noticed him downcast as soon as,” the filmmaker added. “He led with a steadiness of humor and fierce will, and true pleasure within the work. Once I met him, he was the studio ‘swimsuit’ assigned to supervise True Lies in ’93.  Within the midst of the logistical nightmare of that manufacturing we got here to respect and revel in one another. A bond cast in hearth. I lured him away from Fox to hitch my manufacturing firm, Lightstorm and collectively we then tackled Titanic, a manufacturing as formidable and seemingly ill-fated because the ship itself. Jon bore the brunt of the studio stress and gave his all to supply the time and sources for me to make the movie I noticed in my head. From that we grew to become brothers in arms. We believed we might resolve any manufacturing downside. The subsequent mountain we climbed was Avatar, a manufacturing that extra resembled the Manhattan Mission… making up new physics as we went alongside. Mastering a model new methodology to inform tales. Once more Jon gave his all, and by no means misplaced religion that we have been doing one thing extraordinary and that we might by some means prevail. Within the course of we not solely made a movie, we cast a household. Jon was the center of the Avatar household, together with his humor, generosity and large capability to make individuals really feel valued and ‘seen.’ He gave everybody a way of goal and belonging. And this continued by means of the making of the sequels. It’s not possible to convey how a lot our tight knit group will miss this man, this power of nature… the middle of gravity of our little bubble universe. Jon created a neighborhood, a household, on Avatar and at Lightstorm, however not on the expense of his family, who have been at all times his highest precedence.”

Cameron continued in his heartfelt tribute, “Jon was my proper hand and I used to be his. Lately we grew to become a trapeze act…  complete interdependence, complete belief, complete synchronization. We grew to become not solely the closest of working companions, however the closest of pals. My final message to him was not solely that I beloved him however that I missed our each day dialogue. We’d speak twenty instances a day, normally in his workplace which he positioned strategically between mine and the set. Fixing each downside that got here alongside. Jon had the energy to inform me once I was fallacious, and I discovered over time to belief that he was proper. Jon beloved his work, and beloved the individuals round him, the superb crew he had constructed. Day by day was joyful battle, towards entropy — the chaos that threatens to unravel each human endeavor. The middle at all times held, below Jon’s watchful eye. We fought by means of the pandemic collectively to ship Avatar: The Means of Water. Collectively, we thought we might resolve something. However you possibly can’t resolve the fragility of life itself.  I’m grateful for yearly, daily, each minute we had collectively. I’m grateful for the assumption he had in me and what his partnership allowed us to perform collectively. Part of myself has been torn away. However the superb crew he assembled and led nonetheless stays, and we’ll dedicate ourselves to fulfilling Jon’s legacy. Not simply the movies but to come back, however the love and connection that binds the Avatar and Lightstorm household collectively.”

Saldaña, who starred in 2009’s Avatar and 2022’s Avatar: The Means of Water, additionally wrote in a tribute on Instagram following the information of his demise, “Phrases are onerous to place collectively proper now, your passing is hitting actually onerous. You might be leaving us too quickly, my ideas are with you and your loved ones proper now. Your knowledge and help formed so many people in methods we’ll at all times be pleased about. The recollections we shared collectively will at all times maintain a particular place in my coronary heart. Your legacy will proceed to encourage us and information us in our journey. Relaxation in peace, expensive Jon. You’ll be deeply missed.”

Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Leisure, shared in a press release, “Jon was a visionary whose extraordinary expertise and keenness introduced a number of the most unforgettable tales to life on the large display. His outstanding contributions to the movie business have left an indelible mark, and he might be profoundly missed. He was an iconic and profitable producer but a fair higher individual and a real power of nature who impressed throughout him.”

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and screenwriter Fran Walsh, whose digital visible results and animation firm Wētā FX labored with Landau on the Avatar movies, additionally remembered the producer in a joint assertion shared with THR.

“We converse for all the Wētā FX crew after we say we’re devastated by the lack of Jon Landau,” they wrote. “Jon was not solely a monumental determine within the movie business but in addition a cherished collaborator and good friend. Jon introduced unparalleled ardour to the tasks he labored on and his affect will proceed to encourage for years to come back. Our deepest condolences are with Jon’s household and family members, in addition to Jim and the Lightstorm Leisure crew.”

Joe Letteri, who received the perfect achievement in visible results Oscar for his work on Avatar and Avatar: The Means of Water, paid tribute to Landau, writing in a press release, “I’m heartbroken on the lack of our good friend Jon Landau. He was a tremendous and beneficiant man, and a world-class movie maker who leaves a legacy that may final for generations. On behalf of all of us at Wētā FX, it was an honor to work beside him. His dedication to the artwork of movie making impressed us daily. Our ideas are together with his household and family members.”

Learn extra tributes under.

Entertainment

Widow of John Belushi and Actress Was 73

Leave a comment

Judy Belushi Pisano, the widow of John Belushi and a former actress and producer, has died. She was 73.

Information of Pisano’s demise was reported by The MV Occasions, which covers Martha’s Winery, the place she spent a lot of her later years. She died after a protracted battle with most cancers, the publication famous. Belushi’s official social media accounts additionally shared the information on Instagram and Fb.

“At this time, our hearts are heavy as we are saying goodbye to our candy Judy,” the posts started. “Her unwavering dedication and inventive genius alongside Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi gave beginning to The Blues Brothers, a timeless testomony to the facility of music and laughter.”

Pisano was married to Belushi from 1973 till 1982, when he died from an overdose. She remarried in 1990 to Victor Pisano earlier than submitting for divorce in 2010.

“Within the years following John’s passing in 1982, Judy honored his life and championed his legacy and Blues Brothers model,” Belushi’s social media put up continued. “As we bid farewell, we pledge to proceed her work, guaranteeing that John’s legacy, and the Blues Brothers won’t ever fade. There was nobody like her. Judy made everybody really feel liked. She was nonjudgmental, gentle, humorous and pure. You possibly can be actually your self round her, that alone was a present. The Belushi and Pisano households will carry your love of their hearts endlessly.”

She labored alongside her first husband and former Saturday Evening Stay star as an actress on The Blues Brothers and Nationwide Lampoon’s Animal Home. She had roles in Nothing Lasts Ceaselessly and All Downhill From Right here, and served as a producer on The Better of John Belushi and John Belushi: Dancing on the Edge. Based on IMDb, she was additionally engaged on a Blues Brothers tv collection.

Pisano and Belushi first arrived on Martha’s Winery in 1974 after a musician buddy in Boston advisable it, in accordance with The MV Occasions. On the time, they have been residing in New York Metropolis, the place she was working as a radio producer, and he was starting to seek out his success in comedy.

The publication additionally famous that she was energetic within the arts on the island. She held a fundraiser for Martha’s Winery Group Providers with a screening of John Belushi: Dancing on the Edge and one other for Martha’s Winery Playhouse with a Daniel Aykroyd present.

Pisano is survived by her youngsters and grandchildren.

Entertainment

Actor in Lioness, The Holiday Proposal Plan Was 30

Leave a comment

Mike Heslin, an actor in Taylor Sheridan’s action-drama Lioness, had died. He was 30.

His husband, Scotty Dynamo (born Nicolas James Wilson), shared on Instagram that Heslin died Tuesday from an sudden cardiac occasion after a week-long battle within the hospital. “Michael was younger, in good well being, and the medical doctors don’t have any rationalization for what occurred,” he wrote.

Heslin performed Polo on two episodes of Lioness season one, which additionally starred Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman. He additionally has roles in The Vacation Proposal Plan, Youthful, The Influencers, 7 Lethal Sins and You Are By no means Alone.

“Michael was good, selfless, proficient, and a real-life guardian angel,” his husband wrote in a tribute. “He single-handedly carried me by a number of rounds of most cancers. He was the primary individual everybody would name to share excellent news with, and he was the right individual to name in the event that they wanted a shoulder to lean on or the perfect recommendation. He really was the sweetest, most caring, and loving man on earth, and he introduced out the best possible in everybody who had the pleasure to cross paths with him. He moved by life with such ease and confidence, and turned everybody round him into a greater model of themselves. Irrespective of how tough issues acquired, we knew that there was nothing we couldn’t overcome with Mike in our nook.”

Dynamo additionally shared a number of photographs within the put up of himself with Heslin, together with photos from their wedding ceremony day in November final 12 months.

“Only a week in the past, we have been within the early levels of beginning a household and would recurrently share our favourite child names for our future children,” he mentioned. “You at all times instructed me that you simply felt such as you have been meant to be a dad, and I couldn’t agree extra. You’ll be the world’s most good father. If I ever change into a dad, I’m going to call my son after you and hope that I handle to lift him to change into no less than half the person you’re.

Dynamo continued, “You have been probably the most beneficiant and giving individual. It brings me peace to know that, by your want to be a donor, you may have given the reward of life to 4 completely different households. We’re 3 weeks away out of your birthday and 4 months shy of our 1 12 months wedding ceremony anniversary, however I do know that you’re in a greater place and that heaven has gained one other angel.”

Entertainment

Former ABC and Studio Executive Was 56

Leave a comment

Stephanie Leifer, a longtime government at ABC and studio ABC Signature, has died. She was 56.

Leifer died of most cancers on Thursday. She spent a mixed 28 years at ABC Signature (and its forerunner, ABC Studios) and ABC, starting on the community in 1994 as an assistant within the community’s TV film division.

“Stephanie was a beloved member of the Disney Leisure Tv household for almost three many years, and our hearts are damaged by the devastating information of her passing,” Disney Leisure Tv mentioned in a press release. “She was a extremely admired government, whose artistic impression was solely matched by the relationships she nurtured each throughout the firm and throughout the trade. Our sincerest condolences exit to her household, particularly her husband and our colleague, Jonathan, and their two stunning kids, Amelia and Noah.” 

After becoming a member of ABC, Leifer rose by way of the ranks, holding positions within the present programming, drama and comedy departments at ABC and serving as senior vp comedy growth from 2002-06. She then moved to ABC Studios, the place she turned head of present programming — overseeing reveals together with Gray’s Anatomy, Misplaced, Determined Housewives, Fortress and lots of others — in 2010. She held that place till departing the studio, which was renamed ABC Signature following the Disney-Twentieth Century Fox merger, in 2022.

Previous to becoming a member of ABC, Leifer labored at public tv station WGBH in Boston and on the Writers and Artists Company in Los Angeles.

A personal funeral is deliberate, with a celebration of life to come back within the close to future. Donations in her reminiscence may be made to CASA of Los Angeles, the place she was a court-appointed particular advocate for foster kids.

Entertainment

Fox Broadcast Network, The WB Architect Was 77

Leave a comment

Jamie Kellner, the charismatic and artful government who expanded the published tv panorama by serving to hatch the Fox and WB networks in 1987 and 1995, respectively, had died. He was 77.

Kellner died Friday at his Montecito, California, house after a battle with most cancers, The Hollywood Reporter has discovered.

Whereas nonetheless using excessive atop The WB, Kellner in March 2001 was given extra tasks overseeing TBS, TNT and CNN as chairman and CEO of Time Warner sister firm Turner Broadcasting System. However he was at that for simply two years, earlier than he retired and served out the rest of his contract again in Burbank.

In the meantime, Kellner was chairman of the station possession group ACME Communications — named after the corporate within the Highway Runner cartoons at Warner Bros. — from its launch in 1997 till it was liquidated in 2016. He was the uncommon community TV exec who additionally had a hand within the station enterprise; ACME’s first 9 stations, in truth, have been WB associates.

The boyish Kellner was president of Orion Leisure Group when he was among the many first folks employed by Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller in February 1986 to develop a community at Fox to compete with CBS, NBC and ABC.

As founding president and COO of Fox Broadcasting Co., he set about constructing the affiliate community, promoting programming to advertisers and establishing relations with producers.

“One of many first checks we apply [with a show] is: Would one of many three networks do that? And very often, if the reply is sure, then we disqualify it,” Kellner instructed The New York Instances in March 1987. “There isn’t a motive for us to exist if we’re going to do what they’ve already finished.”

Married … With Youngsters kicked off the primary official evening of Fox primetime on Sunday, April 5, 1987, and The Simpsons, Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place and In Dwelling Shade would arrive later. He additionally spearheaded the creation of the Fox Youngsters’s Community.

Kellner resigned in January 1993 — Diller had stop 11 months earlier — and was given a berth on Fox Inc.’s board of administrators. However having launched a fourth broadcast community, he joined Warner Bros. in November 1993 itching to begin a fifth.

Kellner obtained an 11 % stake in The WB, with Warner Bros. taking 64 % and the Tribune Co. 25 %. (The community was constructed round six unbiased stations owned by Tribune, together with WPIX in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles.)

After beating the bushes in a fierce battle for associates with rivals from fellow community upstart UPN, Kellner celebrated the kickoff of The WB when The Wayans Bros. aired on Jan. 11, 1995, 5 days earlier than UPN acquired going.

The family-friendly drama seventh Heaven was The WB’s first massive hit, adopted by such different common reveals as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Women, Dawson’s Creek, Felicity and Charmed.

“He had a Mr. Spock-like indifferent high quality at instances,” onetime WB exec Suzanne Daniels wrote of Kellner in her 2007 ebook Season Finale, co-authored with Selection‘s Cynthia Littleton. “He wasn’t simply excitable, but he demonstrated such apparent ardour and dedication that he impressed a group of younger executives, none extra so than I.”

One in all 5 children, James Kellner was born in Brooklyn in 1948 and raised on Lengthy Island. His father, additionally James, was a Wall Avenue commodities dealer; his mom, Jean, was a volunteer with the North Shore Hospital Auxiliary for greater than three many years. He was an avid sailor who competed in yacht races as a teenager.

Kellner graduated with a level in advertising and marketing from Lengthy Island College’s C.W. Submit campus, then acquired into the CBS government coaching program in 1969 with assist from his dad.

Mentored by Hank Gillespie, he landed a job within the community’s program gross sales division and went with that unit when it was spun off as Viacom Enterprises, rising to turn out to be vp first-run programming, growth and gross sales.

In 1978, Kellner jumped to producer-distributor Filmways, the place he had the concept to boil down the 90-minute Saturday Night time Reside episodes right into a half-hour format preferrred for syndication. After Orion Photos acquired Filmways in 1982, he oversaw programming, house video, pay TV and syndication there and presided over the launch of Cagney & Lacey and a reboot of Hollywood Squares.

At Fox, it was his revolutionary concept to counterprogram a stay episode of In Dwelling Shade reverse the halftime present of the 1992 Tremendous Bowl, airing on CBS. These halftime reveals was once boring, however that may rapidly change: Michael Jackson carried out in ’93.

Because the No. 2 exec at Fox Broadcasting behind Diller, he had been given one % stake within the community. When he left after seven years, he obtained a payout of $10 million-$15 million, a “sliver of what [he] hoped to achieve from his involvement with The WB,” in keeping with Season Finale.

At his subsequent cease, Kellner reteamed with Garth Ancier — he had employed him as leisure president at Fox — they usually programmed an evening of “city” sitcoms, together with The Wayans Bros., The Steve Harvey Present and The Jamie Foxx Present. The brand new community would goal a youthful viewers, one which the maturing Fox had deserted.

“Jamie Kellner was the right mannequin of a CEO. Good all the time, pugnacious generally, all the time considering and infrequently smiling, Jamie gave the executives fortunate sufficient to work for him a lot of runway. He would finish conversations with, ‘Do we all know what we’re doing?’ When issues didn’t work out as deliberate (they usually generally didn’t) there was no angst, only a ‘subsequent time we’ll do it otherwise,’” John D. Maatta, former EVP and COO of The WB Tv Community, wrote in a press release. “The ambiance that Jamie Kellner and Garth Ancier created at The WB was a once-in-a-career second for which I’ll all the time be grateful.”

After a public and protracted bidding conflict, Kellner allowed twentieth Century Fox Tv’s supernatural drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Josh Whedon and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, to go to UPN after its fifth season (and its WB contract) resulted in Might 2001.

The WB had been paying $1 million an episode in licensing charges. UPN wound up forking over $2.3 million an episode for 44 episodes over the present’s closing two seasons.

Kellner had a 5.3 % stake in ACME when he based it with Tom Allen, former CFO of Fox Broadcasting, and station exec Doug Gealy. The corporate acquired underperforming stations in such markets as St. Louis; Salt Lake Metropolis; Albuquerque; Portland, Oregon; Inexperienced Bay, Wisconsin; Dayton, Ohio; and Knoxville, Tennessee. One report referred to as the connection between ACME and The WB “vaguely incestuous.”

ACME had 9 stations when it raised about $105 million with an IPO in September 1999. It grew to 12 stations earlier than starting the method of exiting the enterprise in 2003.

Kellner didn’t endear himself to professional wrestling followers when he canceled World Championship Wrestling reveals on TBS and TNT in certainly one of his first programming choices at Turner. He additionally tried and didn’t carry buzz to CNN in its battle with the upstart Fox Information Channel and pushed to merge the community with ABC Information.

After he was changed by Phil Kent, Kellner remained with The WB by the top of his contract in June 2004, when Ancier — who had exited The WB for a prime NBC put up earlier than coming again — Jordan Levin and Jed Petrick took over. It might be his final massive job.

“It looks as if solely yesterday when the partnership between Warner Bros. and Jamie started, as he and Bruce [Rosenblum] traversed the nation in all sizes of planes and all forms of climate signing up associates,” Warner Bros. Leisure chairman and CEO Barry Meyer mentioned then. “Jamie and his group have executed on the imaginative and prescient past the expectations of all these naysayers that loudly proclaimed that there was no room for greater than 4 broadcast networks. Boy, have been they fallacious.”

Kellner noticed The WB vanish in September 2006 when Warner Bros. and CBS Corp. changed it and UPN with one community, The CW.

Survivors embrace his second spouse, former leisure banker Julie Smith; his daughter, Melissa Kellner Berman, who labored with TV producer Greg Berlanti as a growth exec; son Christopher; and siblings Thomas, Ronald and Nancy. His sister Karen died in 2005 at age 44.

“I don’t suppose there’s one other particular person within the historical past of TV that may say they helped begin two new main broadcast networks (Fox and The WB),” Berlanti wrote in a tribute. “Jamie Kellner was a titan and a visionary in our business and but he will likely be remembered by anybody fortunate sufficient to work for him as an government or as a showrunner as a heat, humorous, charismatic, artistic and sort mentor, buddy, husband and Dad.”

He continued, “He devoted his life in TV to fostering and betting on generations of expertise each in entrance of and behind the digital camera. I do know I communicate for thus many others after I say my life was modified by the Camelot-esque house he created for all of us who labored at The WB. He will likely be drastically missed.”