BRAD GREY

15 May

(29 December 1957 - 14 May 2017)

Born in the Bronx, producer Brad Grey first worked for concert promoter Harvey Weinstein while at university. His first promotion was for Frank Sinatra in 1978. Staying in the talent business, he booked New York stand-up comics and in 1984 joined forces with talent manager Bernie Brillstein, forming Brillstein-Grey Entertainment. From 1986 he produced It’s Garry Shandling’s Show for television and remained in TV production for many series and movies until his first features from 1996, Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer, both with Adam Sandler, and The Replacement Killers, with Yun-Fat Chow. He continued in television while also producing films. His greatest TV success was The Sopranos (1999-2007), a massive global hit. Grey went into partnership with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, the company being Plan B, which gave rise to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Departed and 12 Years a Slave. In 2005 Grey became CEO at Paramount Pictures for twelve years, hitting the heights with There Will Be Blood and sequels to Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and Transformers. Other films made under Grey’s aegis include Mike Nichols’s What Planet Are You From?, Scary Movie, City By the Sea, Running With Scissors and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. His last work was on Real Time With Bill Maher, a TV series from 2006 until 2017. Brad Grey married twice and had four children.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

BRAD GREY

POWERS BOOTHE

GEOFFREY BAYLDON