- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLouis Robert Wasserman
- Lew Wasserman was born on March 22, 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was married to Edie Wasserman. He died on June 3, 2002 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
- SpouseEdie Wasserman(July 5, 1936 - June 3, 2002) (his death, 2 children)
- Thick black-frame glasses
- Among the 700 friends who attended the Wassermans' 50th wedding anniversary celebration in 1986 were Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, Charlton Heston, Carol Burnett, Audrey Hepburn, Lady Bird Johnson, several former U.S. ambassadors and California's two senators.
- After MCA bought Universal Studios, federal regulators forced Wasserman to dissolve MCA's agency wing because it was representing performers as their agent while its production company was hiring them; this violated anti-trust laws.
- Chairman and CEO of MCA (Music Corporation of America), the parent of Universal Studios, until 1990 when it was sold to Matsushita for $6.6 billion. Wasserman made an estimated $350 million from the sale, and was retained as a manager. When Seagram bought MCA in 1995, he retired from management, but remained on the board of directors until 1998.
- Was the godfather of actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
- Received a star on Hollywod Blvd. October 5th 2007. The star is located right outside the box-office of Chinese Theatre.
- The greatest art in Hollywood is just talk. I have never made a deal at a party. I can't tell you how many times clients have called me in the morning and said, 'I promised so-and-so at a party last night to do a movie for him. Please get me out of it.' When I do it, I am accused by the studio of all sorts of things. That I am favoring another studio. that I talked the client out of doing a part he wanted to do. That I enjoy being ruthless.
- [In 1960 to his diver as they hear Ted Williams hit a home run in his last Major League at bat] At age forty-four, Ted Williams is an old man for baseball, and at forty I'm an old man for the agency business. [Despite his words, Wasseman was forty-seven at the time.]
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content