Ovitz Gives UCLA Hospital $25 Million

Hollywood’s onetime superagent, Michael Ovitz, has pledged $25 million to help rebuild the UCLA Medical Center, which was damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, university officials announced Wednesday.

The donation from Ovitz, who recently left the Walt Disney Co. with a $90-million severance package, will be the second-largest gift ever made to UCLA.

“It more than made my day,” Chancellor Charles E. Young said after learning that the pledge was sealed. “A few more days like this, and I’ll be able to ease up a bit on the fund-raising.”

Ovitz, a UCLA alumnus and chairman of the UCLA Medical Sciences executive board, was unavailable for comment.

But in a letter to medical school Dean Gerald S. Levey, Ovitz asked that his contribution be used to build a new medical center, saying he and his wife are “thrilled to be able to make this pledge to such a fine institution that has done so much for so many.”

The gift, made through the Ovitz Family Foundation, kicks off an effort by UCLA to raise $330 million in private funds to help rebuild the hospital and other medical facilities damaged in the quake.

The campaign supplements $432 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild the hospital on the Westwood campus, and an additional $56 million to repair the quake-damaged Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, said Levey.

UCLA officials also want to renovate and expand space for biomedical research and for the UCLA schools of medicine, public health, nursing and dentistry.

State and federal grants fall short of what is needed to build a new UCLA Medical Center at another location on the Westwood campus, Levey said--much less fund other medical construction projects.

The $25 million from the Ovitz family “is an extraordinary start” to make up the shortfall, he said. “This really is a magnificent gift.”

The UCLA medical facility lost about 14% of its structural integrity when its concrete walls cracked in the earthquake. The damage does not pose immediate safety hazards, but another quake could jeopardize any use of the facility, officials said.

UCLA officials unveiled a 12-year development program last month that includes building a new 500-bed medical center by 2003 at Westwood Boulevard and Circle Drive. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2000.

The two-year project in Santa Monica, meanwhile, would begin in 1998, creating a 220-bed facility that would replace a portion of the hospital damaged in the quake.

UCLA also plans to build a large outpatient care facility on its Santa Monica campus.

Ovitz, who graduated from UCLA with a psychology degree in 1968, gained renown as Hollywood’s leading negotiator during his years as head of the Creative Artists Agency. He then spent 14 months as president of Disney before his high-profile split with the company in December.

Young said Ovitz has provided significant help to the university over the last 15 years, including assisting with UCLA’s “ongoing negotiations with FEMA to provide funding for the seismic improvements. He was involved in helping us and talking with people he knew, just to see that we were treated right.”

The largest gift to UCLA--$45 million--came in May from a private donor whose full name was kept private. It is being used to build a neuroscience research center on campus.