David Cogan, 78; Backed Landmark Play on Broadway

David Cogan, 78, who co-produced the landmark drama “A Raisin in the Sun” in 1959, Broadway’s first play by a black playwright, died of lung cancer Feb. 7 at his home in Bedford, N.Y.

Cogan had been a theater manager, owner and producer, and also founded a talent agency that managed such celebrity clients as Anne Bancroft and Neil Simon. That firm, Cogan, Bell & Co., also represented the classical Beaux Arts Trio and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson.

In 1959, Cogan joined music publisher Philip Rose in the daring production of Lorraine Hansberry’s dramatic play “A Raisin in the Sun,” about a Chicago black family. The star was Sydney Poitier, who reprised his role in the equally ground-breaking film version of the same title in 1961.

Cogan also produced other plays, including “In the Counting House” in 1962. From 1960 to 1986, he was the owner of Broadway’s Biltmore Theater.