Dear Mopos - Once again, there is sad news - Tom Sherak, an honest-to-goodness mench of the movie business, has passed.
Tom was the most humane and movie savvy guy you would ever want to meet. Before he was the head of the Motion Picture Academy, it was my honor to work for him when he was the Chairman of Fox. The head of production was after me for having too much fun in Archives and Tom said, "Forget about him, you work for me, now." Tom taught me the value of teamwork - a big test for a loner like me. Among his best advice was to stay out of the way if bad news was in the pipeline - pass it on and don't put yourself in the middle. Sherak would say if reviews were mixed on a new picture, you were dead. But if everybody hated it, you really had something to sell! My favorite Sherak moment was when he came over after the Monday morning meeting and whispered into my ear, "We're up to our eyeballs in this new Cameron picture, TITANIC. When we're done we need you to sell everything." Tom changed my life a few times and always for the better. A true visionary, the secret of his power was his love of movies. If there's one guy that gets to go to movie heaven, Tom's the guy. While today, the earthly world of movies is a smaller place for our loss. Alan Variety Obituary: http://variety.com/2014/film/news/tom-sherak-former-academy-president-and-film-czar-dies-at-68-1201075043/ Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
