Sam Cohn, pioneering talent agent, dies at 79

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Pioneering agent Sam Cohn, who was instrumental in the founding of International Creative Management, died in New York on Wednesday. He was 79.

Cohn, who kept working up until this February, counted legends -- including Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman as well as Meryl Streep, Woody Allen, Robert Altman and Mike Nichols -- among his clients.

A Pennsylvania native, Cohn started his career at CBS and then went into law before becoming an agent in 1963 at General Artists Corp., which later partnered with Creative Management Associates. In 1975, Cohn and ICM Chairman Jeff Berg merged CMA with International Famous Agency to create ICM.

Cohn is survived by his wife, Jane, and son and daughter.

-- Joe Flint

Photo credit: Ray Stubblebine / for The Times