Film and stage producer David Brown died 1 February 2010 of kidney failure, following a long illness. Born 28 July 1916 in New York City, he was nominated for four Academy Awards, and won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1991.
After graduating from Stanford and Columbia, Brown started his professional life as a journalist, writing for The Wall Street Journal and Women’s Wear Daily. He took time out to serve in the US Army during World War II. He also wrote for The Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s, and Collier’s, before becoming an editor, both at Liberty magazine, and as the managing editor of Cosmopolitan. His third wife, Helen Gurley (now Helen Gurley Brown), whom he married in 1959, has been the iconic editor-in-chief of Cosmo since 1965.
In 1951, Darryl F. Zanuck hired Brown to head the story department at Zanuck’s studio, 20th Century-Fox. He eventually rose to become executive vice president of creative operations. He and Zanuck’s son, Richard D., left Fox in 1971 for Warner Brothers, but the following year they set out to form their own production company. They remained partners through 1988, and produced films such as The Sting (1973) and Jaws(1975).
Brown’s genre productions include: Deep Impact (1998), The Saint (1997), Cocoon: The Return (1988), Cocoon (1985), The Island (1980), Jaws 2 (1978), and Sssssss (1973). Four of his films were nominated for Best Picture Oscars: Jaws, The Verdict (1982), A Few Good Men (1992), and Chocolat (2000).
He turned to stage production late in his career, when, in 1989, he wanted to buy film rights to Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, but Sorkin was afraid a film would ruin the value of the stage rights, so Brown bought those as well. The stage play opened in November 1989, starring Tom Hulce, and ran 500 performances, before Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson starred in the 1992 film.
He is survived by his wife and his half-brother.