Larry Auerbach, the veteran William Morris agent who ended his career helping USC students make connections with people in the film and TV industries, died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills, surrounded by his family, a rep for Auerbach’s son David tells Reporters. He was 95.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Auerbach spent 47 years as an agent at William Morris, where he started part-time sweeping floors at the age of 15 while still attending high school. He went from working in the mailroom to assistant to agent at the age of 19, the youngest in the agency’s history. He was known as “the man with the golden Rolodex,” securing Elvis Presley’s first TV appearance and repping the likes of Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and Sammy Davis Jr.
After starting as a personal-appearance agent, booking clubs and signing comedians and musical acts, Auerbach launched WMA’s rock music department before running the film division in New York, putting together movies like The French Connection, In the Heat of The Night, Fiddler on The Roof, Moonstruck and Last Tango in Paris.
He later relocated to Los Angeles, where he served as head of WMA’s TV department.
He also guided the careers of Alan Alda, Bea Arthur and Aaron Spelling and helped create and package The Cosby Show, details of which he recalled in a 2003 interview with the Television Academy.
After he left William Morris, he considered producing, but USC came calling, hoping to use his expertise to help students break into the entertainment industry.
“There was a little story in the paper that I was leaving William Morris, and Dean Elizabeth Daley called me and asked if I would get lunch,” Auerbach said, according to a 2018 USC article on his retirement. “I knew USC had a great reputation, but I had no idea I was stepping into a second career. Dean Daley wanted to get the school, and the kids, an agent. That’s what they offered me. That’s what I did. The talent was there. What they needed was someone to pick up the phone.”
Serving as head of industry relations at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Auerbach helped connect students with Hollywood, serving as a mentor and leading talks with film and TV industry leaders.
“We did some marvellous things in Industry Relations,” Auerbach told USC before retiring after 25 years there. “We helped every student that came to us who wanted to work and wanted to make something of themselves. Some of them made it big. It was fun. When I first came here, I thought I had bigger plans. I was wrong. It turned out to be paradise. It’s been terrific. I’ve had two jobs in my life and 72 consecutive years of work.”
Said Daley on Saturday in a statement “Larry Auerbach joined the School of Cinematic Arts in 1992 to create the Office of Industry Relations in short, to be an agent in the best sense of that profession for our school. For the following decades he had an indescribably profound impact on helping generations of students and alumni develop meaningful careers and understand the industry they wanted to join.
“He was a friend and valued mentor, loved by us all, and his spirit will infuse the school long into the future. He cared about each and every one who walked through his door, be they an aspiring young person or a faculty or staff colleague who was seeking his advice and wisdom. For all those years, we so often said to one another when trying to make a decision, ‘Well, just ask Larry.’ I will miss him and know that my life and the lives of so many here at USC are richer because he was with us.”
Among those who attended Auerbach’s retirement party were TV agent Alan Berger and producers Alan Berger, Jason Berman, Bob Osher and Aaron Kaplan, and a video message was played from CAA boss Bryan Lourd.
Lourd called Auerbach “one of the greats” in a statement on Sunday.
“He touched so many people’s lives great artists like Norman Jewison, Alan Alda, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Wagner and Bea Arthur, to name a few,” Lourd said. “He mentored hundreds of young people who were drawn to film and television he changed so many people’s lives for the better,i was one of those lucky people.”
Auerbach’s wife of 56 years, Carole, died in 2010. He is survived by his children, David, Bruce and Stephen and his wife Joy as well as grandchildren Samantha Auerbach Feldman, Alex Auerbach, Zachary Auerbach, Katie Auerbach, Chloe Auerbach and Lily Auerbach and his great-granddaughter Rachel Feldman.
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