THR's Power Business Managers 2012

When Matt Lichtenberg ventured into entertainment business management in 1981, he spent far too many late nights at the Improv and Saturdays on set at Saturday Night Live. But he has developed a specialty representing top comedy clients such as Larry David and Will Ferrell.

By 2007, when he joined Level Four, he had extended beyond comedy, representing such bands as Smashing Pumpkins and Limp Bizkit. Still, nothing prepared him for a 2 a.m. call this past summer when he learned client Michael Clarke Duncan had experienced a heart attack. Even more shocking was the next call from Duncan’s lawyer revealing that the actor had secretly given Lichtenberg medical power of attorney.

“The next thing I know, for the next six weeks, I was solely responsible for every medical decision, from do-not-resuscitate issues, to keeping things out of the press, to eventually arranging the funeral” when Duncan died in September. “Not one of the fun jobs of a business manager.”