Howard Lapides, a producer and talent manager who repped and worked with such clients as Dr. Drew Pinsky, Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla and Carson Daly, died Thursday at his home in Encino after a battle with colon cancer, a publicist announced. He was 68.
As CEO of Lapides Entertainment, he also represented Tom Green, Tom Chapin, Pat Bullard, John Wing, Mark DeCarlo, Marianne Curan, attorney Christopher Darden and TV personality Mark Walberg, among others.
Lapides served as the executive producer of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab franchise, which included Celebrity Rehab and Sober House With Dr. Drew, and was managing partner of Dr. Drew Productions, which was launched in 2009.
In a statement, Pinsky noted that “Howard was more than a manager. He was family, and I will miss him immensely. He was the architect of everything I’ve ever done. He was my confidant, champion and protector for the past 25-plus years, and I am devastated by this loss.”
Lapides served as an exec producer for The Man Show and a consultant on Crank Yankers, two Comedy Central programs created by Kimmel and Carolla. He also exec produced Loveline, hosted by Carolla and Pinsky, and worked with Daly developing another MTV show, Total Request Live.
Lapides produced Green’s feature directorial debut, Freddy Got Fingered (2001), for New Regency Pictures and Fox and exec produced the Green-starring Stealing Harvard (2002) with Brian Grazer for Revolution Studios.
Lapides began his career at age 16 at WYSL-FM in Buffalo, N.Y. While attending Emerson College in Boston, he produced The Steve Fredericks Show on WMEX-AM and spent weekends on the air at WEIM-AM in Fitchburg, Mass.
After graduation, Lapides spent the next five years with Baton Broadcasting of Canada, lending his on-air and programming expertise to radio stations CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, and CFGO in Ottawa. Later, he partnered with Michael Cohl and Donald Tarlton (Donald K. Donald) to promote concerts in Canada.
As a one-day favor to a friend, Lapides developed and hosted a postgame talk show on the Buffalo Bills radio network. That gig turned into years of work with the NFL team and WBEN.
Lapides served as the creative consultant for the CTV talk show Open Mike, hosted by Mike Bullard, and he partnered with Brandon Tartikoff on an ABC pilot, Best Defense, starring Lauren Graham and Steve Landesberg.
A member of the Conference of Personal Managers and the TV Academy, Lapides was a visiting professor at USC, UCLA and Emerson, where he served on the board of overseers.
Survivors include his wife, Maria; children Olivia and Max; and siblings Jeffrey, Sharon and Renee.
