Maurice Segal, a publicity and advertising executive who supervised campaigns for such classic films as Some Like It Hot, The Misfits, The Apartment, West Side Story and The Boys in the Band, has died. He was 99.
Segal, who served three terms on the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, died Oct. 18 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, daughter Laura Stegman announced.
In 1974, Segal launched his own PR and marketing company, the Maurice E. Segal Co., with clients that included The Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, the American Film Institute, Filmation Studios, Avco Embassy Pictures and Golden Harvest Films.
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He and his wife, marketing executive Claire Segal, then formed the Segal Co., which represented the Los Angeles Music Center, L.A. Opera, Center Theatre Group, the Pasadena Symphony, the John Wayne Cancer Institute and City of Hope, among others, in the late 1980s.
Born in New York, Segal attended City College and began as a writer at Twentieth Century-Fox in 1941. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he joined Century Theatres and was a publicist for Paramount Pictures, RKO Pictures and J. Arthur Rank.
In 1957, he landed at United Artists, which brought him to Los Angeles, where he became West Coast director of advertising and publicity for the company.
Segal went on to serve as studio publicity director for Universal Pictures and National General Pictures, as vice president at Taft Entertainment and as a partner in Max E. Youngstein and Associates, which repped producers.
Along the way, he did publicity for other films including Judgment at Nuremberg, Tom Jones, Lilies of the Field, Little Big Man and Le Mans.
During the course of his career, Segal also worked for CBS and Brut Productions and wrote travel and feature articles for newspapers and magazines.
In addition to his wife of 68 years, survivors include his daughters, Laura (and her husband, Hugh) and Susan, and his grandson, Benjamin.
The family requests donations be made to the American Civil Liberties Union or the Anti-Defamation League.
