GORDON RESIGNS FOX POST

After a sometimes turbulent 18-month tenure, Larry Gordon, president and chief operating officer of Twentieth Century Fox Entertainment Group, resigned Tuesday morning and announced his return to independent production.

Several months ago, Gordon, who will be 50 in March, was advised by doctors that his heart was ailing and that he should have bypass surgery.

“After learning that I had a potential health problem, I decided to reevaluate my priorities,” Gordon said in a Fox press release issued Tuesday morning. Gordon has thus far avoided the operation. “Ten doctors said I do have to have it and 10 said I don’t, so I’m the tie breaker and I’m voting with the don’ts,” he told The Times.

Gordon also acknowledged that “I’ve got a health problem, but I feel great, and that’s not really all of it. We did a good job, we put together a complete slate of films at a studio that had nothing and we left them healthy. It’s time to let someone else take a shot.”

Gordon’s health, coupled with steady rumors about his sometimes stormy relationship with studio chairman Barry Diller, fed the industry gossip mill. His departure had been rumored practically from the moment he was hired. “There seemed to be some real friction surfacing in the last six to eight weeks,” said one rival studio head. “But Larry does have a genuine health problem. These jobs will kill you when you’re in perfect health. For him to stay in that condition would have been insane.”

Studio Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Barry Diller said in the press release, “Larry Gordon has done an excellent job and while I am most sympathetic to the reasons that led to his decision, we will most certainly miss him.”

No immediate replacement was named, but Gordon’s administrative duties will now be handled by Alan Horn, former chairman and chief executive of Embassy Communications and now president and chief operating officer of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. After learning of Gordon’s health problems in October, Diller brought in Horn with Gordon’s approval. “I had contractual blocking rights, so that I could have prevented anyone coming in over me,” Gordon said. “When the doctors told me I would have to have the open-heart surgery, it scared the hell out of me and that’s when my plan for the resignation started.”

Concerning the supposed tension with Diller, Gordon openly admitted that the two often disagreed, but said they had a good working relationship. “Since the day I arrived, people said I wouldn’t get along with Diller and that’s just not been the case,” Gordon said. “We are both strong personalities, but we managed to get our work done.” A high-ranking production executive at one rival studio insisted that the two were so far apart in taste that the relationship was strained from the start.

Gordon was hired by then-studio owner Marvin Davis in July, 1984; in August, Davis brought in Diller.

“I think it was very uncomfortable for Barry Diller to sit down to dinner with Larry Gordon and Arnold Schwarzenegger to discuss ‘Commando,’ said a high-ranking rival studio executive. It came down to different tastes; Larry’s is cheeseburger and Barry’s is boutique.”

“Look, sometimes we agreed and sometimes we didn’t,” Gordon said. “I wasn’t sure I’d last 18 days and the town wasn’t sure I’d last 18 minutes. I guess they were wrong.”

In September, Gordon told a Times reporter: “I’ll stay as long as I want to stay or until they throw me out--whichever comes sooner.”

During the 18 months he was at the studio, Gordon approved for production about 10 movies developed in-house, including “Aliens,” (the sequel to “Alien”) “Commando,” which turned out to be one of the studio’s best performing pictures of the year, along with the not-yet-completed “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” with Whoopi Goldberg and “Black Widow,” a thriller starring Debra Winger, to be directed by Bob Rafelson.

Gordon, who once worked as a “gofer” for Aaron Spelling and went on to produce the successful “Matt Houston” series, will now return to producing movies. Over a 16-year career Gordon produced a broad range of films, including the successful “48 HRS.” and “The Warriors” and the not-so-successful “Streets of Fire” and “Paternity.”

“I liked the film-making part of the job, but I’m not crazy about the administrative end of it,” Gordon said about his stay in the executive suite. I’m excited about getting back to something I’ve done well for years.”

If another studio came after Gordon for an executive position? “I have a production deal here and this is what I want to do. But I’d never say never.”