Ted Ashley

Ted Ashley, talent agent turned movie mogul who reversed the sagging fortunes of Warner Bros. in the 1970s with such blockbuster motion pictures as "A Clockwork Orange," "Dirty Harry" and "The Exorcist," died in August 2002. He was 80. The Brooklyn-born Ashley had no experience running a movie studio when he was tapped to head Warner Bros. in 1969. But he had a strong background in show business as a talent agent with William Morris and later his Ashley Famous Agency. By 1972, he was voted motion picture showman of the year by the Publicists Guild of America; in 1973, he was named Pioneer of the Year by the Foundation of Motion Picture Pioneers. In 1974, he was the subject of a New Yorker magazine profile titled, "Who Is Ted Ashley? Just the King of Hollywood, Baby." The son of a tailor, Ashley studied accounting at the former City College of New York and started his career as a teenage office boy at William Morris. After several years as a successful William Morris agent, he acquired his own agency, and developed Ashley Famous into a major packager of television shows. When his agency was sold in 1967 to Kinney Services Inc., Ashley stayed on. Two years later, when Kinney bought Warner Bros. and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc., it had to sell the talent agency to avoid conflict of interest but tapped Ashley to rescue the studio. Within six weeks, Ashley had fired or retired 17 of 21 executives and begun to rebuild Warner Bros. into a Hollywood powerhouse. He brought in top directors and actors, including Stanley Kubrick, Peter Bogdanovich, Clint Eastwood and Barbra Streisand. Although Ashley stepped down to catch his breath a couple of times, he served as Warner Bros. chairman from 1969 to 1980, then became a consultant, and in 1982 became vice chairman and member of the board of the parent Warner Communications Inc. He retired in 1988. Ashley is survived by his wife, Page Cuddy Ashley; four daughters from a former marriage, Fran Curtis Dubin, Diane Ashley, Kim Balin and Ba-nhi Sinclair; a brother, Alfred; and two grandchildren.