You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
PROMOTION<br />
TODAY IN<br />
ENTERTAINMENT<br />
NEWSLETTER<br />
We are excited to announce the appointment of<br />
ASHLEY PARTINGTON<br />
to Vice President of the LA Talent Agency.<br />
WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREAT <strong>2018</strong>!<br />
Get an early brief of what matters<br />
in entertainment now.<br />
Each weekday, delivered to your inbox, executive editor<br />
Matthew Belloni and assignment editor Erik Hayden will<br />
highlight what’s news and what’s worth reading from<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Hollywood</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> and other outlets — basically,<br />
anything an entertainment insider or obsessive needs to<br />
know to start their day. Exclusives and dispatches from<br />
THR writers, editors, and critics will also be included.<br />
SIGN UP AT<br />
THR.com/newsletters<br />
FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION CONTACT:<br />
LOS ANGELES | 323.525.2245 NEW YORK | 212.493.4049<br />
James H. Rich, Jr., age 70, of Tarzana, CA, died peacefully<br />
from the complications of cancer on January 20,<br />
<strong>2018</strong> with his loving and devoted wife of almost 44<br />
years, Abigail Crow Rich, by his side.<br />
Jim was born in Pittsburgh, PA, on December 24, 1947,<br />
to James H. Rich and the late Idamae Brody Rich. <strong>The</strong><br />
date of his birth, he would tell everyone, was the result<br />
of his mother falling off a ladder while trying to put a<br />
star on the Christmas tree.<br />
He attended an all-boys prep school, Shadyside Academy,<br />
where, among other activities, he was a member<br />
of the honorary Sargon Society,<br />
and played on the varsity tennis<br />
and football teams. Summers<br />
he hung out at WAMO,<br />
his father’s radio station. After<br />
graduation in 1965, he went to<br />
Syracuse University to study<br />
Communications, where he<br />
lived in the football dorm and<br />
thought he was going to play<br />
until he was positioned in front<br />
of Larry Csonka and Floyd Little<br />
at a practice game and was<br />
flattened.<br />
Always resilient and practical,<br />
he looked around and realized<br />
that not only was it safer<br />
to go into the theater department,<br />
but there were real-live<br />
girls there. And so his show<br />
business career was born.<br />
He transferred to New York<br />
University’s Film School, where<br />
Martin Scorsese was his instructor, and where he created<br />
his award-winning student film, Ginkgo. After<br />
film school, he worked on Sesame Street shorts, commercials,<br />
and industrials in New York, and created his<br />
documentary Earth Day, starring Rod Serling and Pete<br />
Seeger.<br />
In the mid-1970s, he headed to Los Angeles to work<br />
for Bob Stivers Productions and began a career that<br />
spanned almost 50 years. As he advanced from young<br />
production manager to executive producer, he worked<br />
on hundreds of television shows, including Circus of the<br />
Stars, People’s Choice Awards, People’s Court, Superior<br />
Court, Vincent with Leonard Nimoy, John Denver and<br />
the Muppets, Kid Songs, Monty Python Live at the <strong>Hollywood</strong><br />
Bowl, Red Skelton’s Funny Faces, George Burns<br />
in Concert, Enchanted Musical Playhouse with the Osmonds,<br />
Straight to the Heart, A Talent for Murder with<br />
Sir Lawrence Olivier and Angela Lansbury and many,<br />
many others.<br />
ADVERTISEMENT<br />
James H. Rich<br />
1947-<strong>2018</strong><br />
Jim was a member of the Producers Guild of America.<br />
He was the executive vice president of Cable and Syndication<br />
at Centerpoint Productions, where he worked<br />
for Tom Tannenbaum with production partners Guber-<br />
Peters, Blake Edwards, and Grasso-Jacobson. He won<br />
an ACE award in 1983 for Sweeney Todd, which won<br />
seven Emmys. In the early 2000s, he produced three<br />
two-hour specials to promote the opening of Universal’s<br />
theme park in Osaka. <strong>The</strong> specials featured top<br />
Japanese television stars and Universal stars Meryl<br />
Streep, Gene Hackman and Steven Spielberg.<br />
After retiring, he co-founded<br />
<strong>The</strong> Great Beer Company,<br />
brewers of the award-winning<br />
kölsch-style ale, <strong>Hollywood</strong><br />
Blonde. He was a practicing<br />
Buddhist, worked on the campaign<br />
to elect Obama, and volunteered<br />
with an organization<br />
for troubled teens.<br />
Jim loved many things, not<br />
the least of which was walking<br />
the dogs at his beach house<br />
in Ventura, CA, watching<br />
Pittsburgh Steeler games, going<br />
to the symphony and the<br />
<strong>Hollywood</strong> Bowl with his wife,<br />
talking to his father, and bragging<br />
about his children and<br />
grandchildren.<br />
His life was marked by an<br />
electric spirit, an extraordinary<br />
ability to persevere, a goofy<br />
sense of humor, a quest for<br />
spiritual knowledge, and a generous soul. He is remembered<br />
by friends and admirers as someone who lifted<br />
them up when they needed it, and encouraged them to<br />
be their best and truest selves.<br />
In addition to his wife, Jim is survived by his father,<br />
James H. Rich, of Pittsburgh, PA; his son, Nicholas<br />
James Rich, and daughter-in-law, Cara Delizia Rich of<br />
Tarzana, CA; his daughter, Kit Rich, of Santa Monica, CA;<br />
three grandsons, Hunter Rich, Lucas Rich, and Crosby<br />
Rich; his sister, Kathryn Rich Sherman of Pittsburgh,<br />
PA; and numerous brothers/sisters-in-law, nieces,<br />
nephews and cousins.<br />
His memorial will be held in Tarzana, CA on March 3,<br />
<strong>2018</strong> from noon to 4:00. Family members will commit<br />
his ashes to the sea the following day.<br />
In lieu of flowers, please donate to his favorite charity,<br />
“No Kid Hungry,” (https://www.nokidhungry.org/)<br />
the campaign of the national anti-hunger organization<br />
Share Our Strength.