Celebrity Biographies
Jerome Hellman
He won the best picture Oscar for producing “Midnight Cowboy.” Jerome Hellman died on May 26, 2021, at the age of 92, at his residence in South Egremon, Massachusetts, although he had been in a state for 12 years, according to his wife, Elizabeth Hellman, because he suffered a stroke.
Born on September 4, 1928, in New York, Jerome Hellman belonged to a Jewish family. He served in the Marine Corps before entering show business as a talent agent at Ashley/Steiner Agency. He then formed his own company, Jerome Hellman Associates, which represented important figures from the golden age of live television. He began his journey as a producer with hour-long specials for George Roy Hill ‘s Unit Four Productions .
Starting in 1959, he dedicated himself exclusively to producing feature films, beginning with The Irresistible Henry Orient , starring Peter Sellers –in his first American film–, and directed by Hill. Jerome Hellman has a cameo as an actor in another Sellers film, Welcome Mr. Chance . He failed with his second job, A Wonderful Fool , which had Sean Connery at the helm of the cast , but he made a comeback with Midnight Cowboy , with which he achieved the feat of triumphing in the top category of the Oscars, being the only film with X rating that succeeded in it.
The film adapted the novel by James Leo Herlihy , which had several gay sex scenes. “I thought the relationship between the two boys would be something that would work,” Jerome Hellman told Vanity Fair’s Peter Biskind in 2010, “but if there was any hint of homosexuality, it would be a catastrophe. I was embarrassed to tell the director, John Schlesinger , as he maintained the fiction that he was straight, but I knew he was gay, seeing a guy come out of his penthouse, even though he never introduced me to him.” He recruited Dustin hoffmannafter seeing him interpret “Eh”, a play on the Off-Broadway circuit. “It was just him, as a factory watchman, but he impressed me. I said to myself, this guy was born to play Ratso Rizzo.” Before filming began, the actor became a star with The Graduate , so he had to raise his salary.
He would receive a new candidacy for The Return , from 1978. Jerome Hellman also produced Promises in the Dark (1979), but when the director, again John Schlesinger , abandoned the project, he himself replaced him in this task. He concluded his professional activity with The Mosquito Coast , from 1986.
In addition to his wife of over 20 years, he is survived by his daughter, Jenny, and son, JR