James Aubrey Jr., Former Head of CBS and MGM, Dies

James Thomas Aubrey Jr., who presided over retrenchment at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the resurgence of CBS in tenures that were marked by creativity and callousness, has died, it was reported Friday night.

His son, James W. Aubrey, said the executive who brought “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Green Acres” and many other top-rated programs into the nation’s living rooms, was 75.

Aubrey--the first man to head a film studio and a TV network--died of a heart attack Sept. 3 at UCLA Medical Center. The younger Aubrey said his father realized he was ill, called paramedics and got dressed while he awaited them. He was found unconscious.

“I think he probably thought it was just a severe asthma attack,” his son told Associated Press. “He was a very healthy man. He ran four or five miles a day. I always thought he would outlive me.”

Aubrey was once one of the most feared and respected figures in broadcasting: Lucille Ball admired him “as the smartest one up there” (the CBS executive suite), while John Houseman dubbed him “The Smiling Cobra.”

Aubrey was born in La Salle, Ill., attended Princeton University (where he played football) and entered the entertainment industry in the early 1940s. By 1956, he was manager of network programming at CBS. In 1957, he became vice president of programs and talent and two years later was named network president.

For a man whose career was the focus of twin spotlights, he was an intensely private person. In 1986 he gave what was probably the most extensive interview he ever granted, to the late Paul Rosenfield of The Times.

“I’m not doing this for the sizzle,” he said at the time, shortly after he and a few investors began a company called Entermark, which financed low-budget films. It evidently was to discuss the fledgling company that he agreed to the interview at all.

His last few years proved relatively modest compared to the 1959-65 era, when he was president of CBS, and the period from 1969 to 1973, when he held the top spot at MGM.

He was as much respected as he was disliked during those two periods. But the hard-line reality of both tenures was that in 1963 under Aubrey, CBS had 12 of the top 15 nighttime series on the air and all 12 of the top daytime soaps. And he later was credited with saving MGM from financial ruin.

“No man in TV history made bigger profits--or more enemies,” the Washington Post said. And when he was abruptly fired by CBS chief William S. Paley in what proved a murky dispute over his highhanded manner with subordinates, coupled with a dip in ratings brought on by three disappointing Aubrey projects, CBS stock dropped nine points.

Although he brought dozens of successes to the small screen, including “Petticoat Junction,” “The Munsters” and “Gilligan’s Island,” he also canceled the series of such legends as Jack Benny, Garry Moore and Arthur Godfrey.

Aubrey was asked at a UCLA film class why he once put three series on the air in a single season without making a pilot of any of them.

“Arrogance, I guess,” replied the man who also brought the National Football League to CBS for a blind and then-staggering bid of $21 million.

When he joined MGM, it was a studio that had been preeminent in the film industry but was then in dire financial straits. He and principal owner Kirk Kerkorian sold off land, props and Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” cut salaries, turned off the heat in some office buildings and fired 3,500 employees.

Aubrey also canceled some films that were only days away from production and decreed that no MGM picture henceforth would cost more than $1 million.

The result was to reduce an $80-million bank debt to $22 million.

With those cutbacks and the success of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, the studio was well in the black when Aubrey left in 1973.

Aubrey said he walked away from life at the top because he “just didn’t want to do it anymore.”

He admitted he had always operated with total candor but realized that he hurt people with that honesty and said, “I don’t want (more) power now, or authority.”

Additionally, he said he had discovered that expectations for movies, unlike TV, were “unrealistic.”

“Every picture is supposed to be a smash,” and when it isn’t “the executive becomes the heavy,” he said.

He stayed away from entertainment executive suites for more than a dozen years, returning to start Entermark, whose partners--mostly oilmen and ranchers--included former Texas Gov. John Connally.

The silver-haired, distinguished-looking Aubrey, who had been the inspiration for fictional studio executives in several books, was known throughout his career for two things: his sometimes painfully blunt assessments of people and projects, and a keen, highly visible power of concentration.

Had he ever considered an acting career, he was asked in 1986.

“Oh God, no! I’ve been enough of a ---- in my life without becoming a star too!”

In addition to his son, he is survived by a daughter, Skye.