Veteran Hollywood producer Lawrence Turman died Saturday at the age of 96, his family said.
Turman passed away at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Turman – whose biggest success came with the 1967 classic The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman and the late Anne Bancroft – produced more than 40 films over the span of 50 years.
They included 1961’s The Young Doctors, 1982’s The Thing, 1970’s The Great White Hope, 1986’s Short Circuit, 1997’s Booty Call, 1998’s American History X and 2011’s The Thing.
He said of his craft in his 2005 book So You Want to Be a Producer: ‘I initiate every single film project upon which I work; most of them would not have seen the light of day had I not decided to make them. I’m the starter and also the finisher.’
Details: Veteran Hollywood producer Lawrence Turman died Saturday at the age of 96, his family said. He passed away at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California
Turman, who was once an agent, formed the company Turman Foster Co. with producer David Foster in 1974, with their partnership ending in 1991.
That year, Turman began working at USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program, which lasted 30 years until 2021.
In 1996, he began working with John Morrissey, and their Turman-Morrissey Co. put out movies including 2001’s Kingdom Come.
He also directed a pair of feature films, 1971’s The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, which starred Richard Benjamin and 1983’s Second Thoughts, which starred Lucie Arnaz.
Turman spent $1,000 to option the rights to The Graduate after he read a favorable review in The New York Times of the 1963 novel from Charles Webb.
Turman said that selecting Mike Nichols was ‘an intuitive hunch’ in a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair. ‘Webb’s book is funny but mordant,’ he said at the time. ‘Nichols and [Elaine] May’s humor seemed like a hand-in-glove fit to me.’
Turman said that he told Nichols at the time: ‘I have the book, but I don’t have any money. I don’t have any studio. I have nothing, so let’s do this. We’ll make this movie together, and whatever money comes in, we’ll split 50-50.’
Nichols said that the film had been passed on by all of the big name studios over a two-year span before getting Embassy Pictures’ Joseph E. Levine to approve a $1 million budget for the movie.
Turman’s biggest success came with the 1967 classic The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman and the late Anne Bancroft
The veteran film producer was pictured in 2016 in Beverly Hills, California
Nichols picked out fledgling actor Dustin Hoffman for the role of Ben Braddock in the motion picture, which would wind up costing $3 million to make.
The motion picture went on to recoup that, and then some, taking in $35 million in its first six months, and was 1967’s highest-grossing film.
According to Box Office Mojo, the film, which was initially released on December 21, 1967, has made more than $105 million with re-releases in 1997, 2012 and 2017.
The motion picture was also a success with critics, garnering Nichols Best Director honors over seven nominations.
Turman is survived by his sons John, Andrew, and Peter, daughters-in-law Analuisa, Nancy and Sheri; grandchildren Audrey, Carter, Georgia and Olivia; and nieces Katherine and Suzanna.
He will be honored at a service at the Motion Picture home in the future, the outlet reported.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Turman’s name to The Larry Turman Endowed Fund for the Peter Stark Program – USC School of Cinematic Arts.
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