Lee Guthrie, a TV Writer-Producer and Mother of Actress Sean Young, Dies at 76

Lee Guthrie, an entertainment journalist, Emmy-nominated producer and the mother of actress Sean Young, died July 19 in Santa Monica. She was 76.

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Guthrie suffered for years from severe scoliosis and osteoporosis, brought on by a car accident she was involved in as a teenager, said veteran TV writer and Humanitas Prize executive director Cathleen Young, her oldest daughter.

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Guthrie and Cathleen Young won a Humanitas Prize and a Christopher Award and shared an Emmy nomination in 1994 for producing the ABC Hallmark Hall of Fame telefilm A Place for Annie, which they co-wrote as well. It starred Sissy Spacey, Mary-Louise Parker and S. Epatha Merkerson in the drama of a woman who raises an HIV positive baby whose drug-addicted mother demands she be returned.

A native of Louisville, Ky., Guthrie also wrote the celebrity biographies The Life and Loves of Cary Grant (1977), Jackie O: The Price of the Pedestal (1978) and Woody Allen: A Biography (1978). Her work appeared regularly in Cosmopolitan, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Field newspaper syndicate, and she wrote short stories for Redbook and McCall’s.

Guthrie launched and managed the early acting career of her youngest child, Sean Young, who went on to star in such films as Blade Runner (1982), No Way Out (1987) and Ace Venture: Pet Detective (1994). Cathleen Young has written more than a dozen network telefilms and was a staff writer for the TV series MacGyver and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Guthrie attended the University of Kentucky and Oberlin College, then worked for The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria, Ohio, and as a news reporter for WERE radio in Cleveland. She moved to New York City in 1976 with her husband, Donald Young, who would serve as an editor for WPIX-TV.

In addition to her daughters Sean and Cathleen, Guthrie is survived by her son Donald, her brother Charles, her nephew Kevin and her grandchildren, Shaelee, Gemma, Rio and Quinn.