Ted Ashley, 80; Talent Agent Also Ran Warner Bros. Studio

Ted Ashley, talent agent turned movie mogul who reversed the sagging fortunes of Warner Bros. in the 1970s with such blockbuster motion pictures as “A Clockwork Orange,” “Dirty Harry” and “The Exorcist,” has died. He was 80.

Ashley died Saturday of natural causes at New York Hospital in Manhattan, a spokesman for New York’s Frank Campbell Funeral Home said Sunday.

The Brooklyn-born Ashley had no experience running a movie studio when he was tapped to head Warner Bros. in 1969. But he had a strong background in show business as a talent agent with William Morris and later his Ashley Famous Agency.

Over the next 11 years, he not only proved successful in the new job but placed an indelible stamp on Hollywood.

By 1972, he was voted motion picture showman of the year by the Publicists Guild of America; in 1973, he was named Pioneer of the Year by the Foundation of Motion Picture Pioneers.

In 1974, he was the subject of a New Yorker magazine profile titled, “Who Is Ted Ashley? Just the King of Hollywood, Baby.”

The son of a tailor, Ashley studied accounting at the former City College of New York and started his career as a teenage office boy at William Morris. After several years as a successful William Morris agent, he acquired his own agency, and developed Ashley Famous into a major packager of television shows, including “The Carol Burnett Show,” “The Doris Day Show” and “Mission: Impossible.” His clients included Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Perry Como, Burt Lancaster, Rex Harrison and Ingrid Bergman.

When his agency was sold in 1967 to Kinney Services Inc., Ashley stayed on. Two years later, when Kinney bought Warner Bros. and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc., it had to sell the talent agency to avoid conflict of interest but tapped Ashley to rescue the studio.

Within six weeks, Ashley had fired or retired 17 of 21 executives and begun to rebuild Warner Bros. into a Hollywood powerhouse. He brought in top directors and actors, including Stanley Kubrick, Peter Bogdanovich, Clint Eastwood and Barbra Streisand.

Ashley, as a hands-on leader who constantly read scripts and books that might be turned into movies, made the studio commercially successful with such films as “What’s Up, Doc?” “Blazing Saddles,” “Mame,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “All the President’s Men,” “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” “The Goodbye Girl,” “Summer of ‘42,” the “Superman” series and “Death in Venice.”

Already adept in small-screen fare, Ashley also helped Warner Bros. become prominent in the new television miniseries genre. He brought in David L. Wolper, who produced “Roots,” “The Thorn Birds” and “North & South.”

Although Ashley stepped down to catch his breath a couple of times, he served as Warner Bros. chairman from 1969 to 1980, then became a consultant, and in 1982 became vice chairman and member of the board of the parent Warner Communications Inc. He retired in 1988.

Ashley is survived by his wife, Page Cuddy Ashley; four daughters from a former marriage, Fran Curtis Dubin, Diane Ashley, Kim Balin and Ba-nhi Sinclair; a brother, Alfred; and two grandchildren.

Services are scheduled Tuesday in New York. The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the New York-based I Have a Dream Foundation for the Ashley Project NYC Fund.