Jerry Zeitman, a onetime agent who represented George Burns & Gracie Allen, Shirley MacLaine, Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra, died Thursday of natural causes in Los Angeles, his daughter Debbie Zeitman said. He was 90.
Zeitman also repped Gene Kelly, Tony Curtis, Carol Channing, Rod Serling, Jerry Lewis, Ron Howard and Kristy McNichol, among others, and worked with companies like David Wolper Productions.
As the head of Jerome M. Zeitman Productions, he produced films including Damnation Alley (1977), Just You and Me, Kid (1979) and How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980) before returning to the agency business with The Agency.
Born in Los Angeles on Sept. 16, 1930, Zeitman graduated from Fairfax High School and began in the mailroom at MCA at age 17. He was made an agent under the tutelage of Lew Wasserman, booking California nightclubs from Bakersfield to San Diego, before joining the television department.
He moved to the William Morris Agency after MCA was forced by the federal government to exit the agency business in the 1960s.
Survivors include his daughters, Cathy and Debbie; son-in-law Rob; daughter-in-law Denise; four grandchildren; and former spouses Patricia and Johanna.
