Milton Goldman, 75; Agent for Broadway Personalities

Milton Goldman, one of the theater’s best-known agents, died Wednesday of apparent heart failure in his sleep at his home in Manhattan. He was 75.

He had retired for the night after attending the opening night gala of the Martha Graham Dance Co. and the party afterward.

Goldman was president of Graham’s Center for Contemporary Dance.

At his death he was vice president of International Creative Management and head of its theatrical department.

He had begun his career at A&S; Lyons, a theatrical agency, before forming his own company in 1955. Two years later he was bought out by the Ashley-Steiner Agency, which later became International Creative Management.

Goldman handled some of the theater’s biggest stars, including Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Arlene Dahl, Helen Hayes, Mary Martin, Lillian Gish, Ruth Gordon, Derek Jacobi, Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep, Jack Hawkins, Maureen Stapleton and Faye Dunaway.

He was first attracted to the theater as a youth in Brunswick, N.J., where he said he memorized cast listings as other youths did baseball lineups. But a speech impediment kept him from the stage. He attended the Yale University Drama School and worked at a series of odd jobs before finding work with a talent agent at $25 a week.

His first client was Phyllis Kirk, and his stable of stars evolved from her in the early 1950s.

Goldman attributed his success to his personal concern and empathy for actors.

“Basically they are all very insecure people,” he said of them in a 1975 interview. “They wouldn’t be actors if they weren’t. Because an actor has to go out every day and prove himself in front of an audience, and that’s not a mark of a very secure individual.”