Michael Stuart Rosenfeld

Michael S. Rosenfeld dies at 75; was founding partner of Creative

Artists Agency

In 1975, Rosenfeld and four other successful middle-management

executives with the William Morris Agency left to form Creative Artists

Agency, which would become a talent agency powerhouse.

By Valerie J. Nelson

5:00 PM PDT, March 29, 2010

Michael S. Rosenfeld, a talent agent and producer who was one of the

founding partners of Creative Artists Agency, has died. He was 75.

Rosenfeld died Thursday of respiratory failure at Santa Monica UCLA

Medical Center after a long illness, the agency announced.

"He enjoyed an exemplary career as a talent agent," the agency said in a

statement. "He played an important role in the growth and success of

CAA, and prided himself on starting the agency's literary department."

In 1975, Rosenfeld and four other successful middle-management

executives with the William Morris Agency left to form Creative Artists

Agency, which would become a talent agency powerhouse.

Rosenfeld and his partners -- Michael Ovitz, Bill Haber, Ron Meyer and

Rowland Perkins -- pooled their resources and set up shop on Wilshire

Boulevard.

They couldn't afford a receptionist, so each of their wives filled in

one day a week. At first, they conducted business on card tables and sat

in folding chairs.

"It looked like we were booking, all right, but not actors," Rosenfeld

told The Times in 1979. "It looked like we were making book."

As a vice president at ABC, Michael Eisner had worked closely with

Rosenfeld at William Morris. After CAA was formed, Eisner "put his

programming execs in a room with Rosenfeld and his partners and refused

to let them leave until each one had come up with a project the new

agency could handle," according to the 1995 book "The Agency."

Rosenfeld brought together the creative elements for the 1980 movie

"Fame" and sold the landmark 1976 miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man" to

ABC.

Among his clients were William Link and Richard Levinson, creators of

TV's "Murder, She Wrote," and actresses Marlo Thomas, Joanne Woodward,

Ann-Margret, Eva Marie Saint and Dyan Cannon.

By the early 1980s, Rosenfeld had left CAA to produce such projects as

the 1984 TV miniseries "Fatal Vision" and the 1986 skateboard film

"Thrashin'."

Soon after completing the 1989 TV movie "The Hillside Stranglers," he

moved to Kenwood, Calif., and co-owned Dragonfly Aviation, a flying

school at the Santa Rosa Airport.

Michael Stuart Rosenfeld was born June 28, 1934, to Maxwell S.

Rosenfeld, who became a Pennsylvania state senator, and Edith Rosenfeld.

After earning his bachelor's degree from Penn State University,

Rosenfeld started in the mailroom at William Morris in 1957 in New York

City. Two years later, he moved to Los Angeles.

He represented Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, securing their roles in

the 1961 film "West Side Story," for which they both won Academy Awards.

According to CAA, he also persuaded Disney to cast Dick Van Dyke in the

1964 film "Mary Poppins."

Rosenfeld was divorced.

His son, Michael Rosenfeld, and his son's wife, Sonya, are television

agents at CAA.

Rosenfeld is also survived by three other children, Maxwell, Jackson and

Molly; and three grandchildren.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. April 8 at Pierce Brothers Westwood

Village Memorial Park, 1218 Glendon Ave.

Arrangements under the direction of Pierce BrothersWestwood Village Mortuary, Los Angeles, CA.