Stan Margulies; Producer of TV Hits ‘Roots,’ ‘Thorn Birds’

Stan Margulies--whose career as a producer included such historic productions as the miniseries “Roots” and “The Thorn Birds,” two of the highest-rated television programs of all time--died Tuesday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was 80 and the cause of death was lung cancer.

Working with producer David L. Wolper, Margulies was involved with several epic television productions in the 1970s and ‘80s, as well as various feature films, among them the perennial favorite “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”

With Wolper and on his own after they split, Margulies sought out projects that dealt with serious issues of social conscience, from “Separate But Equal” and the 1996 TNT movie “The Man Who Captured Eichmann”--about the hunt for the Nazi war criminal--to “I Will Fight No More Forever,” a 1975 made-for-TV movie chronicling the U.S. Army’s war with, and broken promises to, the Nez Perce Indian Nation.

Reminiscing about “Roots” in connection with its 20-year anniversary in 1997, Margulies said, “Someone called me one day and said, ‘Are you still interested in a generational story?. . . . We hear that a man named Alex Haley is doing his story about six or seven generations in a black family.’ I mean, the lightbulb went on over my head. We had lunch at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, and Alex told us the story and our mouths dropped open 10 feet.”

Margulies began working for David L. Wolper in 1968, and their first production was the 1969 movie “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.” Over the next two decades, the two collaborated on such features as “Willy Wonka,” “Roots”--at the time the most-watched program ever--as well as its sequel; and “The Thorn Birds,” another ratings blockbuster, this one starring Richard Chamberlain.

“He was the best producer I ever worked with,” Wolper said Wednesday. “He knew the business completely. . . . He was calm, he was able to get along with people terrifically well. He was the best, and I worked with a lot of producers.”

Margulies stayed active until shortly before his death, with a movie scheduled to go into production for the pay channel Showtime. He produced the Emmy-nominated A&E; network movie “Dash and Lilly” two years ago and the Emmy-winning miniseries “Separate But Equal”--about the Brown vs. Board of Education case that cleared the way for school desegregation--in 1991.

Before joining Wolper, Margulies worked for star and producer Kirk Douglas’ company, Bryna, overseeing publicity before segueing into a production role. His first credit was as a production aide on the Douglas epic “Spartacus” in 1960, and he later produced several films before teaming with Wolper, including the 1965 adventure-comedy hit, “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.”

“I got to know him very well,” Douglas said. “He was very bright, but very modest. It didn’t surprise me that he became such a great producer.”

Others recalled Margulies’ devotion to quality.

“He had impeccable taste in material,” said actor LeVar Burton--an unknown 19-year-old drama student at USC when he was cast in “Roots” as the young slave Kunta Kinte. “He only did things that he was passionate about.”

Burton recalled the protracted casting process on “Roots,” as Margulies, Wolper and director David Greene spent months convincing ABC to go with Burton over two more experienced candidates. Finally, Burton was summoned to a meeting at ABC with the “Roots” creative team.

“They were bringing me there to force ABC’s hand,” Burton said. During the meeting, Burton was asked to leave the room; not long after, Margulies emerged and told him, “Pack your bags, kid, you’re going to Savannah.”

Others remembered Margulies as someone with a strong sense of taste and integrity. “It is a tremendous loss to this community,” said Brandon Stoddard, a former head of ABC Entertainment who oversaw movies and dramatic series at the time of “Roots” and “The Thorn Birds.” “I had the highest respect for him as a man and as a professional. . . . He worked on projects that were interesting and different, [and] he handled them with sensitivity.”

“Roots” was clearly a career highlight for Margulies, who joked that in its aftermath he could still be “turned down by higher executives.”

“There was a passion about doing it, which I think is what I have been trying to accomplish ever since--to do things where people say, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do this,’ ” Margulies said in 1997.

Born in New York City, Margulies attended New York University and wrote for a Salt Lake City newspaper before moving to Hollywood in 1947 as a publicist at RKO Pictures. He subsequently met Douglas on “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”

Margulies’ first wife of 44 years, Lillian Margulies, died of liver failure in 1991. He remarried two years later to travel author Ferne Margulies.

Margulies is survived by his wife; his son Lee, the deputy editor of The Times’ daily Calendar section; daughter Lisa Chadwick; stepchildren Michael Kadish and Ilene Sturrock; and four grandchildren. Another son, Edward, died in 1999.

A memorial service will be held March 11 at 11 a.m. at the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Stan Margulies Scholarship Fund at the American Film Institute or Cedars-Sinai’s cancer treatment and research center.

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Times staff writer Paul Brownfield contributed to this story.