Hollywood producer and former chief executive of Paramount
Born: December 29, 1957;
Died: May 14, 2017
BRAD Grey, who has died of cancer aged 59, was an influential Hollywood producer and executive who served as the chairman and chief executive of Paramount Pictures for 12 years.
In his time at Paramount, he oversaw franchises such as Star Trek, Transformers and Mission: Impossible, plus There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Up In The Air, The Big Short, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Babel.
He also oversaw several films from Martin Scorsese, including The Wolf Of Wall Street, Shutter Island and Hugo, and produced Scorsese's The Departed, which won the best picture Oscar in 2007.
During his varied career in the entertainment business, Grey founded the management and production company Brillstein-Grey Entertainment with the late Bernie Brillstein.
He also co-founded production company Plan B Entertainment with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, and produced multiple Emmy Award-winning television shows, including The Sopranos and The Larry Sanders Show.
Among his achievements at Paramount, Grey was at the helm for the release of the top-grossing film in the studio's history, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.
He led the acquisition of DreamWorks SKG, and was responsible for a distribution agreement with Marvel, releasing Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America before the Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Studios in 2009.
Grey's film-makers appreciated the long leash he gave them but some observers believe this led to his later troubles - Scorsese's religious epic Silence grossed just $7million dollars at the box office last years. However, JJ Abrams, who made Star Trek, said he appreciated the freedom he was given. "He let us make movies the way we wanted to make them," he said.
Recently, however, the studio had struggled with underwhelming box office receipts for films including Zoolander 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows, and counted losses of nearly 450 million dollars (£349 million) last year, leading to Grey's departure from Paramount in February.
Born in New York in 1957, the youngest child of a clothes salesman, Grey sold belt buckles to make money while he was still in high school. He went on to study business and communications at State University in New York and started out in the entertainment business as an assistant to Harvey Weinstein, who was then a concert promoter.
His first client was comedian Bob Saget, and his partnership with comedians, including the late Garry Shandling, helped make his name in the business.
Current Paramount Pictures chief executive Jim Gianopulos also released a statement.
."I was proud to call Brad a friend, and one I greatly admired. He will be missed by us all, and left his mark on our industry and in our hearts."
Viacom president and chief executive Bob Bakish said he was an extraordinary talent with a passion and gift for storytelling that won't be forgotten.
Grey enjoyed the lifestyle his success brought him and bought the huge house in Los Angeles where Frank Sinatra lived in the 1940s.
Grey is survived by his wife, Cassandra Grey, their son Jules, three children from a previous marriage, Sam, Max and Emily, his mother Barbara Schumsky, his brother, Michael Grey, and his sister Robin Grey.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here