Nashville, producer of The Mask, was 92 years old

Martin Starger on the ABC website.

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Martin Starger, who was a sheepherder the roots, happy Days And Rich man, poor man As the first president of ABC Entertainment before producing films such as those of Robert Altman nashville And Peter Bogdanovich mask, He died. He was 92 years old.

Starger died Friday at his home in Los Angeles, his niece, Elaine Starger, a New York-based casting director, announced. She noted that “he was a brilliant, elegant, and distinguished man who had a wonderful taste in projects.”

As an executive producer, Starger has worked on films including Stanley Donen movie movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman Autumn sonata, The Muppets movie (1979) and Big caper dolls (1981), Mark Riedel On the golden pond (1981), The last unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula Sophie’s choice (1982)

He received Tony nominations in 1987 and 1989 for producing the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express And comedy Lend me a tenorrespectively,

Starger was born on May 8, 1932, in the Bronx, New York. After graduating from City College, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1953 and assigned to the Motion Picture Division of the Signal Corps. In Honolulu, he wrote, directed, filmed, and edited documentaries and features for television, the U.S. Department of Defense, and news films.

After the Army, Starger joined the advertising agency BBDO in New York, then moved to ABC as vice president of programming in 1969. Three years later, he was promoted to president of ABC Entertainment, a new position.

Under his leadership, the Third Place Network has achieved success through… Movie of the week Imtiaz, her famous miniseries the roots And Rich man, poor manand such successful series as Marcus Welby, MD And happy Days. Barry Diller and Michael Eisner were among the rising creative executives who worked with him.

While still at ABC, he advocated for it nashville (1975), which he executive produced with Jerry Weintraub, who brought him the project.

Starger went on to partner with British legend Lew Grade at Marble Arch Productions – where they produced starring Cher mask (1985) – He launched his own company, Marstar Productions. There, he produced or produced television films friendly fire, All is quiet on the Western Front, The Merchant of Venice, Elephant man And Escape from Sobibor.

He arrived on Broadway through the 1976-1978 production of the comedy With Class Foxy Foxwritten by Larry Gelbart and Stephen Sondheim Cheerfully we roll alongwhich premiered in 1981.

Starger divided his time between New York and Los Angeles, his niece said.