Jay Kanter was a powerful Hollywood agent who represented Marlon Brando, Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe, as well as acting as Jack in the classic Billy Wilder film. Lemmon’s character provided inspiration apartment, died Tuesday. He is 97 years old.
A spokesman for the independent artists group announced that Kanter died at his home in Beverly Hills. His son Adam Kanter is a partner at IAG.
Kantor, a favorite of US music company tycoon Lew Wasserman, also spent seven years in the UK in the 1960s, greenlighting European films for Universal Pictures and producing films including Elizabeth Taylor Movies starring Taylor X, Y and Zee (1972) and established a long-term business relationship with Alan Ladd Jr. at Fox and MGM.
When Brando spent time in the slums of Paris after breaking out on Broadway A Streetcar Named Desire In the late 1940s, Kanter, then a junior agent at MCA, received a call from producer Stanley Kramer saying he wanted to hire the actor to work on men (1950) Paralyzed ex-soldier
Kanter was not the budding superstar’s agent – Edith Van Cleef was – but he picked him up at the train station and took him to Brando’s aunt and uncle in San Marino, California home, they had dinner together. The next day, Kanter drove the actor to meet Kramer, director Fred Zinnemann and screenwriter Carl Foreman, then dropped him off at the MCA offices so he could meet with other agents.
Brando told him, “‘I don’t need to meet anyone, you’re my agent,'” Kanter recalled in 2017.
When Wasserman heard the story, “He was really happy because he got calls from Daryl Zanuck and Jack Warner, these studio heads who wanted to meet Malone,” Kanter noted . “Lou said, ‘I can’t arrange it, you have to talk to his agent.’ They said, ‘Who is that? ” He said, “Jay Kanter. ” They said, “Who is he?” “
“All of a sudden I was getting calls from all these studio heads and that was it.”
Soon after, Kanter handed over the keys to his Beverly Hills apartment to Jennings Long so that the senior MCA executive could have a place to continue his relationship with one of his clients, actress Joanne Bennett Special love. “I don’t think he borrowed it to take a nap,” Kanter said in a 2018 episode. love is a crime podcast.
When Bennett’s husband, struggling producer Walter Wanger, found out about the affair, he confronted Long and shot him in the MCA parking lot in Beverly Hills in December 1951. Long was shot in the upper thigh.
apartment Of course, in “1960,” Lemmon plays Bud Baxter, who lets New York insurance executives (including Fred MacMurray’s Jeff Sheldrake) take advantage of his Upper West Side residence Engage in extramarital affairs. The United Artists film, also starring Shirley MacLaine, won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
“I think [the Lang-Bennett-Wanger incident is] That’s where Billy Wilder got the idea for the movie,” Kanter said. “He never told me. But it was obvious.
Meanwhile, Hugh Wilson The famous Teddy Zis his 1989-90 CBS sitcom about a big star (Dennis Lipscomb) who falls in love with a mailroom worker (Jon Cryer), and follows Kanter and Brando’s origin story.
From left to right: Jay Kanter accompanied Marilyn Monroe to the New York premiere of East of Eden in March 1955, and with Marilyn Monroe in September 1954 Grace Kelly had dinner at the city’s Stork Club.
Courtesy of Everett Collection(2)
Jay Ira Kanter was born on December 12, 1926 in Chicago. During World War II, at age 17, he joined the Navy. After his service ended, he got a job in the mailroom at MCA and was promoted to messenger and Wasserman’s assistant.
“He was very good to me. He was my mentor and would discuss various deals in the studio. [with me],” Kanter recalled. “Eventually, I was driving him around as he was visiting different studio heads. And he finally said, ‘You better start making a living here, you’re an agent now.
After Wanger shot Long, Wasserman sent Kanter to work in MCA’s New York office so the Los Angeles district attorney couldn’t interview him. “I went to New York and I thought I was only going to be there for a few weeks,” he said, “and I ended up being there for nine years.”
In 1951, he offered relative newcomer Kelly $750 a week, guaranteed to work for six weeks on a film produced by Kramer, directed by Zinnerman and written by Foreman. noonaccording to Donald Spoto’s 2010 book, High Society: The Life of Grace Kellyand represented her when she signed a seven-year deal with MGM in 1952.
In 1953, Kanter married his second wife, Judy Balaban (daughter of Barney Balaban, president of Paramount Pictures 1936-64), at New York’s Plaza Hotel, where Kelly and singer Rosemary Clooney served as maid of honor and Brando served as best man.
(When he first met Balaban, she was watching her then-boyfriend, singer Merv Griffin, perform at a New York nightclub. She later met Kelly in 1956 with Monaco Rainey She served as bridesmaid at Prince Er’s wedding and wrote a book about it.
Kanter spent the first few days driving along the Pacific Coast with Monroe after she didn’t want to report to the studio the right way. (His other clients included Paul Newman, Jerome Robbins, Laurence Olivier, Warren Beatty, Ronald Regan and Terence Rattigan.)
After MCA was dissolved in 1962 due to antitrust rulings, Kanter became head of film production at sister company Universal Pictures. He signed a six-picture deal with director Michael Winner, spending a reported $30 million on British films – the 1967 Charlie Bubblesstarring Albert Finney and Liza Minnelli, never became a hit.
Always impeccably dressed, Kanter turned to production in the 1970s, making the following films X, Y and Zee; douchebag (1971), starring Richard Burton; The Winner’s night Stalker (1971), starring Brando; fear is key (1972), starring Barry Newman; and big truck and sisters claire (1974), starring Peter Ustinov.
In 1975, he approached Fox about joining Ladd, who quickly offered Star Wars (1977) Green Light. The two also worked together on The Ladd Co. — including the movie they watched chariot of fire, body temperature and blade runner) — MGM/UA (Kante is in charge of MGM) and MGM-Pathe. In 1994, he established his own independent production company.
Kanter has spoken about his relationships with Kelly, Monroe, Ladd and Brando in several documentaries over the years – he and producer Mike Medavoy are the executors of the actors’ estates.
After he and Balaban divorced in 1961, he was married to Kit Bennett from 1965 until her death in 2014.
In the 1990s, Mel Brooks and Kanter hosted a weekly lunch for their closest friends. Initially, the banquet attendees included a group of former Fox executives and film producers from the 1970s, including Ladd, Richard Donner, Paul Mazursky, Freddie Fields and Michael G. Ruskov; later joined by Jeff Cohen, Tim Deegan, Jay Cooper, Richard Benjamin, Fred Spector and Ben Mankiewicz.
Luncheons have been held every Friday for more than 35 years, including last week’s lunch at the permanent location of Porta Via on the Beverly Hills patio, where Kanter was also present.
In addition to his son Adam (and his wife Brooke), survivors include his other children Dustin (and Debra), Tom, Sidney, Bernard, Amy (and composer Bow Bob Tiller) and Michael (and Erica); and his grandchildren Jason (and Andy), Matthew, Owen (and Jared), Sophie, Charlie, Hannah, Kit, Clay O, Grayson and Ryan. His other daughter Victoria with Balaban died in 2020.
A private ceremony will be held Friday. Donations in his memory may be made to the Motion Picture and Television Foundation or the UCLA Stein Eye Institute.
