In the award show/live event genre, there really aren’t superstar director names like Spielberg, Tarantino, Coppola or others. It just doesn’t work like that… with the exception of my friend, Walter C. Miller, who passed at the age of 94 on Friday at home with his family around him. He was not only one of a handful of directors — Dwight Hemion and Marty Pasetta also come to mind — who wrote the book about multi-camera coverage of live events, an art form and mathematical logistics nightmare all its own. He also became the first man in the chair to have spread those talents across both country and pop music, directing and ultimately producing both the CMA Awards and the Grammys as well as the Tonys, the Emmys, Comic Relief and dozens of other live events whose degree of difficulty left numerous other directors sitting in puddles beneath their chairs.
- 11/15/2020
- by Ken Ehrlich
- Variety Film + TV
Walter C. Miller, a five-time Emmy-winner best known for producing or directing the Grammys, Tonys and CMA Awards in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, died on Friday evening, the Country Music Association confirmed to Variety. He was 94.
“Walter was an absolute television legend,” said CMA chief executive officer Sarah Trahern in a statement. “When you worked with him, you instantly knew you were in the presence of greatness. He brought so much innovation and brilliance to the CMA Awards over the 40 years he worked with the organization.”
Miller also served at the helm of other awards shows, as well, including the Emmys, People’s Choice Awards and Latin Grammys.
Miller was nominated for 19 prime-time Emmy Awards, taking home five trophies between 1972 and 1999 — four of them from directing the Tony Awards. He was also nominated for two daytime Emmys. Miller was a three-time Directors Guild of America winner. In 1993, he won...
“Walter was an absolute television legend,” said CMA chief executive officer Sarah Trahern in a statement. “When you worked with him, you instantly knew you were in the presence of greatness. He brought so much innovation and brilliance to the CMA Awards over the 40 years he worked with the organization.”
Miller also served at the helm of other awards shows, as well, including the Emmys, People’s Choice Awards and Latin Grammys.
Miller was nominated for 19 prime-time Emmy Awards, taking home five trophies between 1972 and 1999 — four of them from directing the Tony Awards. He was also nominated for two daytime Emmys. Miller was a three-time Directors Guild of America winner. In 1993, he won...
- 11/14/2020
- by Janet W. Lee
- Variety Film + TV
For someone who already had a reputation as the hardest-working TV music producer in show business, Ken Ehrlich has lately taken it up a notch. Since last fall, on top of his usual Grammy Awards duties, he’s been at the helm for three other prime-time specials — an homage to Elvis Presley’s ’68 Comeback Special on NBC, an Aretha Franklin tribute on CBS and, for that same network, a Motown anniversary show set for Easter Sunday, April 21.
He recognizes it as an unusual flurry even by his standards. “That isn’t my normal life, believe me,” Ehrlich says. “I have those times when I wonder if I’m ever going to work again. But sometimes I wonder if those who will remain nameless even realize how much work this is,” he adds, referring to a pair of well-known executives he works with at CBS and the Recording Academy.
Watching Ehrlich...
He recognizes it as an unusual flurry even by his standards. “That isn’t my normal life, believe me,” Ehrlich says. “I have those times when I wonder if I’m ever going to work again. But sometimes I wonder if those who will remain nameless even realize how much work this is,” he adds, referring to a pair of well-known executives he works with at CBS and the Recording Academy.
Watching Ehrlich...
- 4/11/2019
- by Roy Trakin
- Variety Film + TV
Marvin B. Meyer, who co-founded what eventually became the influential entertainment law firm Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman, died Monday of pancreatic cancer. He was 88. After working in legal affairs at MGM and business affairs at McA, Larry Beilenson recruited Meyer and they co-founded Bielenson & Meyer in 1953, which evolved into Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman. During his career, Meyer represented a who’s who list of industry bigwigs, including Gregory Peck, Billy Wilder, Grace Kelly, Jodie Foster, Mike Nichols, John Calley, Janet Leigh, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, Tony Curtis, Anthony Quinn, Julie Andrews, Montgomery Clift, the Marx Brothers, Sharon Stone, Loretta Young, Marlon Brando, George Peppard, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Pierre Cossette, Yvonne DeCarlo, John Sturges, Janet Jackson, William Morris, Mike Medavoy, Lynn Stalmaster, Joan Rivers, Muhammad Ali, Jeff Berg, Jon Peters, Matthew Broderick, Bill Cosby, and Ed Limato. Born in Brooklyn, Meyer moved with his family in...
- 7/17/2012
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
New York - Pierre Cossette, who brought the Grammy awards show to television and produced it for more than three decades, died on Friday of heart failure in a Montreal hospital at the age of 85, the awards show's website reported. Cossette conceptualized the televised version of the awards show for the music industry, which went on the air in 1971. He continued to produce the show until 2005, when he handed over the job to his son, John. He was also instrumental in founding the Latin Grammy awards, reported the site. Grammys had been awarded since 1959 in a private music industry ceremony. It was Cossette who convinced television executives to turn the awards ceremony into...
- 9/13/2009
- Monsters and Critics
Legendary Broadway producer Pierre Cossette has died, aged 85.
He passed away on Friday from heart failure at the Barrie Memorial hospital in Montreal, Canada.
Cossette served in the army during World War II before moving into showbiz. He produced a number of shows for the New York stage including the six-time Tony Award-winning The Will Rogers Follies.
The star was instrumental in bringing the annual Grammy Awards to television and paid $150,000 (£100,000) in the 1970s for the right to broadcast the ceremony.
Cossette has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2005, the year he retired.
Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, says in a statement, "It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our dear friend and the father of the Grammy awards. Pierre was a creative visionary and one of the most accomplished, versatile and respected producers. It was because of his passion and dedication that the Grammy Awards came to network television close to 40 years ago."
Cossette is survived by two sons, John and Andrew.
He passed away on Friday from heart failure at the Barrie Memorial hospital in Montreal, Canada.
Cossette served in the army during World War II before moving into showbiz. He produced a number of shows for the New York stage including the six-time Tony Award-winning The Will Rogers Follies.
The star was instrumental in bringing the annual Grammy Awards to television and paid $150,000 (£100,000) in the 1970s for the right to broadcast the ceremony.
Cossette has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2005, the year he retired.
Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, says in a statement, "It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our dear friend and the father of the Grammy awards. Pierre was a creative visionary and one of the most accomplished, versatile and respected producers. It was because of his passion and dedication that the Grammy Awards came to network television close to 40 years ago."
Cossette is survived by two sons, John and Andrew.
- 9/13/2009
- WENN
The Winged Foot Golf Club has had the sixth hole of its fabled East Course shut because of a neighbor's grumbling about being bombarded by golf balls. Westchester Supreme Court Justice Gerald Loehr issued a temporary restraining order after complaints by Mamaroneck resident Anthony Pecora, owner of Larchmont's Villa Maria restaurant, whose property borders the exclusive club. One member fumed to Page Six: "Nobody has ever shut the damn thing down before. We're not happy with a grueling 17-hole golf course!" Winged Foot, whose members include Donald Trump, Frank Gifford, Pierre Cossette and the Giants-owning Mara family,...
- 10/14/2008
- NYPost.com
TORONTO -- Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Alanis Morrissette and singer-songwriter Paul Anka were among the inductees into Canada's Walk of Fame announced on Tuesday. Also set to receive their own maple leaf on a Toronto sidewalk is Fay Wray, star of the original King Kong, concert promoter Michael Cohl, boxer George Chuvalo, dancer Rex Harrington, producer Pierre Cossette and music producer Daniel Lanois. Each will be recognized on June 5 during a gala ceremony to air on the CTV network. Donald Sutherland, Keifer Sutherland's father, was an early inductee onto Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000. He joined another 83 Canadians to have been recognized since 1998, including Jim Carrey, Celine Dion, Michael J. Fox, Dan Aykroyd, Wayne Gretzky, Lorne Michaels and Mike Myers.
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