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Jay Weston

Ed Fury Dies: Bodybuilder Actor Of ‘Ursus’ Sword & Sandal Low-Budget Epics Was 94
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Ed Fury, a 1951 Mr. Muscle Beach winner who became one of the most successful male physique models of the era before launching a swords & sandal film career that rivaled the genre’s leading man Steve Reeves, has died at his California home. He was 94.

His death on February 24 was announced this week by his wife and family friends. A cause of death has not been specified.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story David Lindley Dies: Session Star And Multi-Instrumentalist With Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan Was 78 Related Story Jay Weston Dies: 'Lady Sings The Blues' Producer Who Gave Al Pacino Broadway Break Was 93

Born Edmund Holovchik in New York on June 6, 1928, Fury began lifting weights as a high school wrestler before moving to Southern California in the late 1940s, where he soon found his place among the Santa Monica Muscle Beach bodybuilding set. He began...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 3/7/2023
  • by Greg Evans
  • Deadline Film + TV
Jay Weston, ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ Producer, Dies at 93
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Jay Weston, producer of films like “Lady Sings the Blues” and “Buddy Buddy,” died of natural causes Feb. 28 at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 93.

Weston first met Billie Holiday at the Newport Jazz Festival — a chance encounter that would ultimately lead to Weston producing a biopic about her starring Diana Ross in 1972. “Lady Sings the Blues” marked Ross’ feature debut and went on to score five Academy Award nominations, including best actress for Ross and original screenplay.

“I read the book and I said to [Holiday’s] agent, ‘I want to make a movie out of it,’” Weston said in a 2011 interview with the Los Angeles Business Journal, referring to the jazz singer’s autobiography. “He said, ‘Give me $5,000, and I’ll think about it.’ So I gave him $5,000, and it took 13 years and many $5,000 payments to keep the rights because everybody wanted it.”

The veteran filmmaker...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 3/3/2023
  • by Katie Reul
  • Variety Film + TV
Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
Jay Weston, Producer of ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ and ‘For Love of Ivy,’ Dies at 93
Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
Jay Weston, a veteran producer of Hollywood films including 1972’s “Lady Sings the Blues” starring Diana Ross and 1968’s “For Love of Ivy” starring Sidney Poitier, has died at the age or 93.

Weston, who also built a respected career as a restaurant critic, died at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California.

Weston’s most notable producing efforts likely came on “Lady Sings the Blues,” which was nominated for five Academy Awards. Other features included “Buddy Buddy” (notable for being Billy Wilder’s final film), “Chu Chu and the Philly Flash” and “W.C. Fields and Me.”

Weston was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 9, 1929, to Phillip and Shirley Weinstein. He went to NYU as a pre-med student, but soon switched to an arts curriculum. After earning a BA, he began a career in publicity before being drafted and sent to Korea in 1952. There he started a newspaper, The Hialean,...
See full article at The Wrap
  • 3/3/2023
  • by Drew Taylor
  • The Wrap
Jay Weston Dies: ‘Lady Sings The Blues’ Producer Who Gave Al Pacino Broadway Break Was 93
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Jay Weston, who was working as a publicist when a chance meeting with Billie Holiday at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival would lead to the producing of her 1972 biopic Lady Sings the Blues, died February 28 of natural causes at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, CA. He was 93.

His death was announced by spokesperson Jeff Sanderson on behalf of the Weston family.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Ricou Browning Dies: 'Creature From The Black Lagoon's Gill-man Was 93 Related Story Brett Radin Dies: Talent Manager With Knitting Factory Management Was 53

A prominent restaurant critic later in life, Weston’s show business career in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s was marked by such high points as producing Billy Wilder’s last film, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash with Carol Burnett and Alan Arkin, W.C. Fields...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 3/3/2023
  • by Greg Evans
  • Deadline Film + TV
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Jay Weston, ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ Producer, Dies at 93
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Jay Weston, who produced the Diana Ross-starring Lady Sings the Blues and Billy Wilder’s final feature, Buddy Buddy, has died. He was 93.

Weston died Tuesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his family announced.

Weston also served as head of ABC’s feature film division, Palomar Pictures, where his first project was the Sydney Pollack-directed They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), nominated for nine Oscars.

And he produced the 1969 Broadway drama Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, starring Al Pacino in a career-launching, Tony-winning turn.

A chance meeting with Billie Holiday at the Newport Jazz Festival led him to securing the rights to her autobiography. He then produced Lady Sings the Blues (1972), the Sidney J. Furie-helmed biopic that collected five Academy Award nominations.

Weston followed with films including W.C. Fields and Me (1976), starring Rod Steiger; Chu Chu and...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 3/3/2023
  • by Mike Barnes
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kim Novak in Vertigo (1958)
‘Bell, Book & Candle’ Remake in the Works — Without Harvey Weinstein
Kim Novak in Vertigo (1958)
A remake of the Jimmy Stewart-Kim Novak romantic comedy “Bell, Book & Candle” is in the works with Jay Weston and Sara Risher producing.

Weston, who has producing credits on “Lady Sings the Blues” and “Invisible Child,” originally optioned the remake rights from the estate of original author John van Druten, then collaborated with Harvey Weinstein on the project for several years. He announced Friday that Weinstein and Miramax are out of the project. The disgraced ex-mogul was found guilty on Feb. 24 of committing a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape.

Weston said he is acquiring the remake rights again with veteran film executive Risher joining him. Risher was a New Line exec before launching Chickflicks Productions, through which she produced the drama “55 Steps” starring Hilary Swank and Helena Bonham Carter. The producers are seeking a female director for “Bell, Book & Candle.”

In the original 1958 film, Novak played a...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 2/28/2020
  • by Dave McNary
  • Variety Film + TV
Notes On The Season: Last-Minute Oscar Push With Coast-To-Coast Events And Parties, From ‘Roma’ To ‘Mary Poppins’ To ‘A Star Is Born’ And More
A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit

It is what they call “crunch time” in the business as the moment in this long, looooooong awards season is upon us when it all comes home to roost. Voting has been going on since Monday for this year’s Oscar nominations and will close this coming Monday at 5 Pm Pt. According to my informal survey many have already cast ballots, but as any Oscar campaigner worth their salt knows there are just as many that haven’t,w ith lots of members apparently still trying to catch up with movies or just too busy going to the myriad events where hopefuls are appearing in the quest for every voter they can find under any rock.

Veteran producer and longtime Academy member Jay Weston notes in his latest restaurant newsletter, Jaywalking In L.A., that he is a confirmed Roma...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 1/11/2019
  • by Pete Hammond
  • Deadline Film + TV
R.I.P. Hillard Elkins
The longtime Hollywood manager and producer and former agent Hillard "Hilly" Elkins died of a heart attack on Wednesday evening. He was 81. "Hilly was a larger-than-life character, a legendary stage and film producer and a manager of many great talents," emails his close pal Jay Weston. "He started at 18 in the William Morris mailroom and there is a story that he delivered its mail personally to theatre magnet Lee Shubert each day wearing a homberg. One day, Lee Shubert called William Morris and asked for that fellow in the homberg. And he was immediately promoted to agent. At the time of his death, he was working on DiCaprio starring in Kurt Vonnnegut’s Cat’s Cradle because Hilly owned its screen rights. Beloved, humorous, charming, fun. He was an amazing man." According to his official bio, Elkins began in the Morris mailroom and moved up the ranks to head of the theatrical department.
See full article at Deadline Hollywood
  • 12/3/2010
  • by NIKKI FINKE
  • Deadline Hollywood
'Bell, Book & Candle' Freed From Miramax
These days any time a studio agrees to return an old hit to its producers instead of rebooting it is rare indeed. So my longtime pal Jay Weston is celebrating tonight because Disney's Bob Iger, Rich Ross, and others at the studio have given back to him the romantic comedy Bell, Book & Candle. Originally a successful Broadway play by John Van Druten about witches and warlocks in NYC, it became a fun Columbia picture starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon. Weston tells me he spent more than 12 "frustrating" years in development with the pic when it was being developed at the old Miramax with the Weinstein brothers. “We started in the mid-1990s with a screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, then went on to eight other scripts by celebrated writers, never being able to satisfy the ever-changing desires of the Miramax execs,” said Weston. “Now I have...
See full article at Deadline Hollywood
  • 11/19/2010
  • by NIKKI FINKE
  • Deadline Hollywood
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