MINDLIN, Michael 1923-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born March 11, 1923, in New York, NY; died of lung cancer March 7, 2004, in New York, NY. Entertainment executive and author. Mindlin worked as a publicity and production executive in the theater and for movies. After attending Duke University from 1942 to 1943, he served as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. After the war, instead of returning to school he found a job as an office boy working for Warner Bros. This introduced him to the behind-the-scenes world of entertainment, and he quickly became involved in publicity for theater on Broadway and at the Cape Playhouse in Massachusetts during the late 1940s. After a stint as advertising and publicity director for the Ballet Russe in Monte Carlo, and for Lopert Films, he worked on such films as Summertime (1955) and Trapeze (1956). During the 1950s, he was publicity director for Figaro, Inc., and a production associate for David Merrick, for whom he produced several Broadway productions, including Gypsy. In the 1960s, he worked in London and then became vice president of advertising and publicity at Filmways, Inc., from 1965 to 1969; during the early 1970s he was vice president for the East Coast for Warner Bros. and an independent producer for Paramount Pictures and Frank Yablans, Inc. He was the author, with actor Tony Randall, of the book Which Reminds Me (1989), and more recently turned his memoirs into an Off-Broadway monologue, which he later turned into an as-yet-unpublished book. Mindlin was also known for co-producing and directing the documentary A Journey to Jerusalem.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Variety, March 18, 2004, p. 14.

Los Angeles Times, March 11, 2004, p. B13.