Rosalind Shaffer; Writer, Publicist in Hollywood

Rosalind Keating Shaffer, a scenarist, publicist and writer who was a seminal figure on the Hollywood scene, died June 5 in Los Angeles at age 94 of complications of a stroke.

She was the author of such novels as “The Finger Man,” made into the 1933 film “Lady Killer,” which starred James Cagney and Mae Clarke. She was also a columnist and feature writer for the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Associated Press before working in the publicity departments of Columbia, RKO, Paramount and 20th Century Fox.

She secured from the James family the historical data on which the 1938 film “Jesse James” was based. With Louella Parsons, she helped found the Hollywood Women’s Press Club in 1928.

She also was a national vice president of the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. Her grandson, William Cecil De Mille, born to the famous director’s son Richard and her daughter, was afflicted with the disease.

She was the widow of journalist George Shaffer and is survived by a son, George Jr., and daughter, Rosalind De Mille.