John Calley, studio lion, dies at 81

CalleyJohn Calley, the studio exec and producer whose 50-year career included stints atop three major studios with dozens of influential and hit films from "Catch-22" and "All the President's Men" to "The Exorcist" and "The Da Vinci Code," died Tuesday after a long illness. He was 81. Calley had most recently been chairman and CEO at Sony Pictures Entertainment, which he joined in 1996 after successful turning around MGM/United Artists in the 1990s and running Warner Bros. in the 1970s. "As a studio head he was unfailingly supportive and didn't try to do the filmmaker's job," said Mike Nichols, director of Calley-produced films "Catch-22," "Postcards from the Edge," and "Closer." "When he believed in someone he trusted and supported him and when very rarely he had a suggestion it was usually a life saver. In fact, that's what he was: a life saver." Though Calley was known as a cerebral and erudite executive, the films he championed spanned all genres and budgets. As Sony topper, he partnered with younger execs like Amy Pascal to discover a new audience, using his instincts and business acumen to pull off pricier projects like "Men in Black," "Charlie's Angels" and "Spider-Man." "John Calley was more than a mentor and boss -- he was the most extraordinary and generous friend," said Pascal, now co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment. "He had a steely business mind and the soul of an artist. His sense of humor about the business never made him cynical or got in the way of his passion for movies and directors. ... He never pandered to the audience, he never accepted conventional studio wisdom and he never lost his enthusiasm. John was my guiding light. He taught me everything." The trick to greenlighting big studio movies, Calley explained last year, is to understand the process and its terrors. "It's a guy lying in a bed in a rented apartment in Century City at four in the morning in a fetal position trying to decide whether or not to say yes to a $175 million budget for 'Spider-Man,'" he said in a companion interview for "You Must Remember This," a docu about Warners. "It comes down to one guy who has to use his gut." Well liked, with a taste for well-crafted films, Calley didn't seek out the spotlight despite his various high-profile positions. Apart from his marketing acumen and craftsmanship, Calley was known for bringing a greater air of comfort in dress to Hollywood executive suites -- sweaters, sportswear, etc. The office called for a "suit" but Calley often refused to wear one. A New Jersey native, Calley cut his teeth in TV before producing movies like "The Americanization of Emily" and "Catch-22" with Martin Ransohoff in the early 1960s. But he made his mark during a long and fruitful run heading production at Warner Bros., where he made a conscious decision to avoid imposing his will on filmmakers the way earlier studio bosses had. Filmmakers loved and trusted him as a result, and over the years he developed close relationships with the likes of Nichols, Stanley Kubrick and Clint Eastwood; he bought Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets" and encouraged him to make "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," a complete change of pace. Calley dropped out of Hollywood in 1981 and stayed away for a dozen years, with notable exception: He produced two movies during that time, including 1993's "The Remains of the Day," which earned Calley his sole Oscar nomination. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences honored Calley with its Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 2009, calling him "one of the most trusted and admired figures in Hollywood." He was one of four honorees at AMPAS' first Governors Awards that November, though he was too ill to accept in person. He was born on July 8, 1930, in Jersey City, N.J., and attended Columbia U. before serving in the Army. From 1951-57 he worked his way up the ladder at NBC, with positions in sales, production and programming. He eventually became director of nighttime programming before leaving to join Henry Jaffe Enterprises, where he developed and produced musical programming. But he soon left to become vice president in charge of radio and television programming at the Ted Bates Advertising Agency, where he remained until 1960. Calley returned to filmmaking as an exec VP and producer at Filmways, where he developed and produced a range of pictures including "Ice Station Zebra," "Topkapi," "The Cincinnati Kid," "The Americanization of Emily," "The Loved One" and Nichols' "Catch-22." Several of those films were released by United Artists. When Filmways was absorbed into Warner Bros., in the late 1960s, Calley joined the studio as an exec VP of worldwide production. When chairman Ted Ashley departed, Calley and Frank Wells moved up to president and chairman, respectively. Calley would later add the vice chairman title. The Ashley-Calley-Wells years at WB were fruitful ones, with standout titles including "Deliverance," "What's Up, Doc?," "Superman," "All the President's Men," "Chariots of Fire" and "Woodstock." Then, in 1980, claiming to be burnt out by the process, he took a well-paid consulting role at WB that continued until 1987. He moved back to Connecticut and spent his time reading and enjoying himself. He had been offered various studio positions throughout the '80s but always demurred. In 1993, Frank Mancuso asked him to restart the defunct United Artists as part of his overall strategy to rebirth MGM/UA. Calley took the job, secure in the knowledge that it was only a temporary one as the studio was being prettied up and readied for sale by its default owner, Credit Lyonnais. Starting at ground zero, Calley generated the most successful Bond franchise film at the time, "GoldenEye," with a new Bond, Pierce Brosnan. He also picked up the low-budget "Leaving Las Vegas," which became a major critical and financial hit and Oscar winner. But his biggest coup was 1996's "The Birdcage," directed by his pal Nichols and starring Robin Williams. This remake of the company's French release "La Cage aux Folles" went on to gross well in excess of $100 million at a time when the studio was up for sale. Though Mancuso would become partial owner of the studio and his position was secure, Calley decided to move to the troubled Sony Pictures Entertainment, which had been steadily unraveling. In late 1996, when his predecessor Alan Levine was fired, Calley signed a five-year contract with Sony as president and COO to oversee both its Columbia and TriStar film and video divisions. Calley engineered a B.O. turnaround at Sony, and became chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures in 1998. He stepped down in 2003 and produced films including Patrick Marber adaptation "Closer" (directed by Nichols), "The Da Vinci Code" and its sequel, "Angels and Demons." But running a studio can get boring after a while, Calley admitted a few years ago to fellow travelers Peter Bart and Peter Guber on "Sunday Morning Shootout." "What must be said is," Calley said, "the money's good." Calley is survived by his daughter Sabrina Calley and step-children Emily Zinnemann, David Zinnemann (Amy) and Will Firth from his marriage to Meg Tilly. A memorial will be held at Sony Pictures Studios with further details to be announced. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the individual's favorite charities.(Timothy M. Gray and Josh L. Dickey contributed to this report.) Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

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