RIP BERNIE BRILLSTEIN: 1931 - 2008
Jesus Christ, 2008 is turning into one hell of a horrible year for losing talent. Sydney Pollack, Anthony Mingella and just this weekend, we’ve lost Bernie Mac, Isaac Haye and now Bernie Brillstein. I truly hope that name doesn’t make many of you scratch your head and go “who”. Because, to put it simply, without Brillstein there’d be no The Larry Sanders Show, The Sopranos, Saturday Night Live, The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Happy Gilmore and The Cable Guy to name but a small few of his accomplishments in governing talent and producing.
Brillstein earned his way into show business in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency (WMA) in New York. He worked his way up to talent agent and by the 1960s he was a manager-producer of television programming for the company. Still associated with WMA, in 1964 he joined Management III to continue talent management.
Brillstein formed The Brillstein Company in 1969. There, he continued to manage stars and develop television programming. He produced such popular television hits as Hee Haw, The Muppet Show and Saturday Night Live, later becoming manager of SNL alums Gilda Radner , John Belushi and Lorne Michaels, as well as Jim Henson (of Muppets fame) and Paul Fusco (voice and operator of ALF). He produced such other television shows as Alf: The Animated Series, and Normal Life.
In the 1980s, he met Brad Grey at a television convention in San Francisco, California an in 1991 the two formed a production company, Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, which packages programming and manages talent. They were responsible for both The Larry Sanders Show and The Sopranos for HBO. As executive producer, Brillstein has been responsible for such successes as The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Dragnet, Ghostbusters II, Happy Gilmore and The Cable Guy.
Brillstein’s 1999 memoir, Where Did I Go Right?: You’re No One in Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead, was co-written with David Rensin. Two years later, he received the honor as recipient of a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, on April 18, 2001. On the evening of August 7, 2008, around 9:00pm, Brillstein died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at a Los Angeles hospital. He is survived by his wife Carrie, daughters Leigh and Kate Brillstein, and three sons Michael Brillstein, David and Nick Koskoff.
Many dream of having a career that would leave just one accomplishment that is worthy enough to transcend through the ages and have their name remembered. Especially in the “industry”.Bernie Brillstein’s CV was fuckin’ filled with such accomplishments. And anyone who’s “top five” career ‘hits’ include Saturday Night Live, The Larry Sanders Show, The Sopranos, Ghostbusters and The Muppet Show is someone whose live is worthy of mentioning!
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- BERNIE MAC 1957 - 2008: RIP
- RIP: Isaac Hayes
- RIP: PAUL NEWMAN (1925 - 2008)
- RIP Robert Jordan 17-10-1948 - 16-09-2007
- RIP: Michael Crichton
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