Mankiewicz’s death leaves big void for L.A. Zoo

In the world of zoos, there is no greater compliment than having an animal named after you. So it was little surprise to find a rare snow leopard cub frolicking at the Los Angeles Zoo in early 2007 named Tom — after Tom Mankiewicz, the chairman of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., the institution’s fundraising arm.

“I thought it was perfect,” recalled Gail Oppenheimer, who with her husband, Jerry, donated substantially to the zoo, earning them naming privileges.

Oppenheimer named one cub Jerry, after her husband, and the other Tom, after their close friend who had persuaded them to be generous donors.

“He loved it,” Oppenheimer said. “He thought it was hilarious.”

A screenwriter, director and second-generation member of the storied Hollywood clan, Mankiewicz died Saturday at 68 after making his second act in life about raising the zoo’s profile and filling its coffers. He persuaded friends and acquaintances in and out of the entertainment world to donate — even getting Elton John to bestow $15,000 on the recent Beastly Ball fundraiser — and helped defend the zoo when it became embroiled in controversy over its planned elephant exhibit.

When the L.A. City Council was close to scotching the exhibit at the zoo, which is a city agency, Mankiewicz and other trustees devised an eleventh-hour, $14.5-million offer to cover the city’s costs. The council voted to let the zoo continue construction.

“He was unafraid, and when things were controversial, he was really out front about supporting the zoo,” said Kimberly Marteau, a member of the zoo’s advisory commission.

But Mankiewicz, whose love of wildlife was nurtured by years of living in Kenya, was a quick wit who leavened sober board meetings with banter.

“It was almost like open-mike night,” said zoo Director John Lewis. “People would chime in with comebacks.”

A genial storyteller, he casually tossed off anecdotes about his life.

“Sometimes the setup for a story was more entertaining than the story,” said Lewis, laughing. “He once said to me, ‘One time in the ‘60s in Tijuana with Dennis Hopper’ — I said, ‘Tom, stop. Let me just work on that premise for a minute.’”

Mankiewicz, chairman of the fundraising group known as GLAZA (for Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn.) since 2002, enthusiastically talked up the zoo but knew it needed better promotion in a town full of attractions. He ruefully recounted trying to get a well-known actress involved in the zoo.

“Where is the zoo?” she finally asked him.

“Tom felt that the Los Angeles Zoo, more than any other cultural institution, attracts the widest diversity of people in Los Angeles,” said Connie Morgan, president of GLAZA.

Mankiewicz, who doted on his two cats, Colors and Mr. Squirt, continued through his illness to help plan the Beastly Ball fundraiser honoring actress Betty White, a longtime zoo supporter. The event was June 19.

“You bet he was at the ball,” Morgan said.

Tom, his namesake snow leopard, now makes his home at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo.

carla.hall@latimes.com