Gary Hendler; Tax Attorney and Producer
Gary Hendler, a tax attorney who numbered many Hollywood celebrities among his clients and then--as boss of Tri-Star Pictures--became responsible for the fates of many more, died Thursday at his Beverly Hills home of cancer.
He was 50 and had left Tri-Star in December, 1984, to pursue a career as an independent producer for the same studio.
During Handler’s two-year tenure at Tri-Star, the company produced such films as “The Natural,” “Places in the Heart” and “Birdy.” As an independent he produced “Blind Date” and “The Milagro Beanfield War.”
Robert Redford, who directed “Milagro” and starred in “The Natural,” was an old friend of Hendler’s, dating to the days when Hendler left the field of tax law to represent Redford, singer Johnny Rivers and eventually such other major talents as Barbra Streisand, Sally Field, Sean Connery, Ella Fitzgerald, Elton John and more.
Hendler, a 1962 graduate of Harvard Law School, is survived by his mother, Yetta, two daughters and two brothers.
Services are scheduled Sunday at the TaNACH Chapel at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park at 10 a.m.
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