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Michael Ovitz
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'''Michael S. Ovitz''' (born
December 14,
1946) is a former talent agent and
Hollywood powerhouse who served as the head of the
Creative Artists Agency from
1975 to
1995.
Ovitz began his career at the
William Morris Agency, but left with four other agents in
1975 to found his own firm:
Creative Artists Agency.
While at
CAA, he was responsible for pioneering the practice of "packaging" writers, directors, and actors for motion pictures. This practice led to
CAA and its clients holding significant negotiating leverage over the major studios.
Ovitz is also well-known for negotiating
David Letterman's move from
NBC to
CBS, chronicled in the book ''The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night'' by Bill Carter, as well as for discovering the action star
Steven Seagal.
In 1995, he resigned from CAA to become president of the
Walt Disney Company under chairman
Michael Eisner. Fourteen months after taking office, he was dismissed by Disney's board of directors and received $38 million in cash and $100 million in stocks as a severance package. This setback, along with the failure of his subsequent venture, the
Artists Management Group, led him to claim that his downfall had been engineered by a Hollywood
cabal he referred to as the "
Gay Mafia gay mafia".
Today, Ovitz is a private investor who continues to informally advise the careers of luminaries such as
Martin Scorsese, David Letterman and
Tom Clancy. He is also a passionate
basketball fan (aficionado) fan.
{{start box}}
{{succession box | title=
Walt Disney Company#Disney Presidents Disney Presidents | before=
Michael Eisner | after=
Robert Iger | years=1995–1997 }}
{{end box}}
External links
-
E! Online: Michael Ovitz, the Thing that Ate Hollywood
-
Michael Ovitz, American Media Executive (Museum of Broadcast Communications)
Category:1946 births Ovitz, Michael
Category:Living people Ovitz, Michael
Category:Disney executives Ovitz, Michael
Category:Jewish-American businesspeople Ovitz, Michael
Category:Talent agents Ovitz, Michael
*** Shopping-Tip: Michael Ovitz
