Gant Gaither, 86; Hollywood, Broadway Producer and Artist

Gant Gaither, 86, a Broadway and Hollywood producer, author, artist and international bon vivant, died Monday in Palm Springs of natural causes, according to a friend, David Graham.

Born in Hopkinsville, Ky., Gaither studied at the universities of Mexico and the South, and Yale’s School of Fine Arts.

Encouraged to concentrate on design, Gaither worked his way into theater by designing sets. In the early 1940s, he founded the Miami Beach Playhouse, where he produced plays. Serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, he assisted Moss Hart on the 1944 motion picture “Winged Victory.”

Gaither went on to work as a writer and producer on Broadway in the late 1940s and ‘50s, then as an executive producer at Paramount in Hollywood from 1960 to 1964. Afterward, he concentrated on sculpture, painting, design and writing, emphasizing his love of satire and animals.

After befriending a young Grace Kelly when she was starting out in Pennsylvania playhouses, Gaither became a regular visitor to Monaco after the actress married Prince Rainier. In 1957, Gaither wrote a biography, “Princess of Monaco: The Story of Grace Kelly.”