Delia Fine, an Emmy-winning producer and former programming executive at the A&E Network, died Friday after suffering a heart attack at home in Stamford, Conn, her sister-in-law said. She was 64.
Fine executive produced the Peabody Award-winning 1995 miniseries Pride and Prejudice, which starred Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. She earned an Emmy in 1999 for exec producing a Horatio Hornblower miniseries that featured Ioan Gruffudd as the British seaman.
Under Fine’s watch, A&E aired the 1999 telefilm Dash and Lilly starring Sam Shepard and Judy Davis and such series as Midsomer Murders, Timothy Hutton’s Nero Wolfe Mysteries and Agatha Christie: Poirot, toplined by David Suchet. She was with the cable network for 16 years.
Earlier, Fine produced The Geraldo Rivera Show and was on the set in November 1988 when the hot-button host was struck with a flying chair during an infamous on-air brawl that broke out between white supremacists and a black activist.
“It was absolutely horrifying,” Fine told Entertainment Weekly in 1999. “I was yelling at the director to go to a wide shot, because I wanted to have a record for legal purposes, and dialing 911 at the same time.”
In April 1983, she helped launch The Morning Show on New York’s WABC-TV, hosted by Regis Philbin and Cyndy Garvey. That program, of course, was the precursor to Live! With Kelly and Michael.
Fine was born in Evanston, Ill., and attended Northwestern University.
Survivors include her husband of 38 years, William; children Elizabeth — a Hollywood line producer and production manager — and Michael; brother William; and grandchildren Hailey and William.
Undated at 3:25 on May 5 to add details of death.
