Lew Wasserman, 89, an old-time movie mogul who helped build an entertainment empire while keeping company with presidents and Hollywood stars, died yesterday of stroke complications at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.
As chairman and chief executive, Mr. Wasserman was undisputed ruler of MCA Inc., the parent of Universal Studios. He owned 6.9 percent of the company's stock and, through a variety of trusts, controlled more than 15 percent.
When MCA was sold in 1990 to Japanese electronics giant Matsushita for $6.6 billion, Mr. Wasserman's take was put at $350 million, and he was retained as a manager. When Seagram Co. took over the company five years later, Mr. Wasserman retired from management with the honorary title of chairman emeritus. But he remained on the company's board of directors until 1998.
During his more than half-century with MCA, he and its late founder, Jules Stein, built it into an entertainment giant involved in movies, television programming, home video, records, consumer products and broadcast station ownership, as well as running its successful back-lot tour of Universal Studios.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan said Mr. Wasserman had been a close adviser to her husband, former President Ronald Reagan, for more than 60 years.
"Lew was Ronnie's first agent in Hollywood and they became fast friends," she said in a statement. "He gave Ronnie some of the best advice in the business."
Though he was considered one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, the public knew little of Mr. Wasserman aside from his philanthropic and business dealings. He served on the board of other companies and numerous organizations, including American Airlines and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Henry Potter, 83, the navigator for Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle in America's first bombing raid against Japan during World War II, died May 27 in Austin, Texas.
The raid against Japan dispelled the notion of Japanese invincibility and boosted America's morale, which had been sagging after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor four months earlier.
The pilots, led by Colonel Doolittle, launched their B-25 bombers from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier on the morning of April 18, 1942. The 16 airplanes bombed industrial areas in four Japanese cities in retaliation for Pearl Harbor.
After the war, Mr. Potter continued with the Air Force in various positions until his retirement in 1970.
Mr. Potter held the rating of master navigator and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters.
John Wodehouse,
78, better known as the fourth Earl of Kimberley and notorious for his bad luck at gambling, business and marriage, died of kidney failure May 26.
He was on Britain's national bobsledding team in the 1950s, ran a London public relations company, sold real estate in Jamaica and served as House of Lords spokesman for the Liberal Party until he was kicked out for urging voters to support the rival Conservatives.
He was best known for his six weddings, his outrageous comments and his gambling, which reportedly squandered much of his family's fortune.