Dick Guttman Dies: Longtime Hollywood Publicist To Such Stars As Barbra Streisand, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Gary Cooper And Many More Was 93
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Dick Guttman, a veteran Hollywood publicist whose clients included Barbra Streisand, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman and Gary Cooper, died on 19 September in Los Altos, California, aged 93. His death was announced by his firm, Guttman Associates, which did not disclose a cause; his career helped shape publicity campaigns for major stars, films and entertainment businesses.
Born in St Louis and raised in Los Angeles, Guttman began at Rogers & Cowan before co-founding Guttman & Pam in 1971 and later establishing his own agency. He represented films including Unforgiven, Dirty Harry, Kramer vs. Kramer and The King’s Speech, while also working with clients such as Buzz Aldrin, Lucasfilm and Hello Kitty; he was additionally a screenwriter and author of the 2015 autobiography Starflacker. He is survived by his wife, Gisela, to whom he was married for 70 years.
- Influential Hollywood publicist Dick Guttman has died aged 93.
- His clients included major film stars and entertainment companies.
- He also worked as a screenwriter and author.
Full account
Dick Guttman, one of Hollywood's most prominent representatives for actors and productions, passed away on Saturday, 19 September, at his residence in Los Altos, California, at the age of 93. His passing was announced through Guttman Associates Public Relations, the company he had established. Over his seven decades working in the entertainment industry, Guttman cultivated relationships with some of cinema's brightest stars, including Barbra Streisand, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Natalie Wood and Elizabeth Taylor, as well as personalities from beyond the film world such as astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Guttman came to Los Angeles from St. Louis in the years following World War II, when his father relocated the family to California. As a teenager, he demonstrated athletic prowess as a track runner at Fairfax High School whilst simultaneously gaining his first taste of journalism by covering high school sporting events for the Los Angeles Examiner. Whilst studying film and psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, he took on part-time work at the prestigious Rogers & Cowan publicity firm, where he would gain invaluable experience in the profession. After completing his degree, Guttman launched his career abroad, serving as a unit publicist on European film productions. His work took him to Paris, where during the production of Billy Wilder's "Love in the Afternoon," he met the woman he would marry—Gisela, who remained his wife for seven decades.
Upon returning to Los Angeles, Guttman rejoined Rogers & Cowan, where he spent more than a decade representing an increasingly prominent roster of talent, including Tony Curtis, Milton Berle, Peter Ustinov and Rex Harrison. In 1971, he formed a partnership with fellow publicist Jerry Pam, and together they operated Guttman & Pam, a firm known for its bespoke promotional strategies throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By the early 1990s, Guttman had established his own agency, Guttman Associates, based in Beverly Hills, which he continued to operate for over three and a half decades. Beyond individual clients, his agency represented numerous acclaimed films—including "Bonnie and Clyde," "Dirty Harry," "Kramer vs. Kramer," "The King's Speech" and "The Artist"—as well as television productions and corporate entities such as Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic.
Guttman's creative output extended beyond publicity work to screenwriting, receiving credit for the 1963 film "Back Door to Hell" and television productions in subsequent decades. In 2015, he published an autobiography titled "Starflacker," drawing on more than a thousand recollections from his career. Guttman and his wife had been long-time residents of Malibu before relocating northward in recent years to be nearer to family. A distinguished member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, his legacy encompasses both the prominent personalities he championed and the films that became cultural touchstones across multiple generations.
Where outlets differ
Source 2 emphasises his preferred terminology of "press agent" over "publicist"; Source 1 uses "publicist" throughout
Source 2 highlights his screenwriting career with specific film credits ("Back Door to Hell," television productions); Source 1 does not mention this work
Source 2 references his 2015 autobiography "Starflacker" containing over a thousand anecdotes; Source 1 makes no mention of this publication
Source 2 details the Palisades Fire and the couple's relocation to be near family the previous year; Source 1 does not reference this recent event
Source 1 explicitly notes that the cause of death was not disclosed; Source 2 does not address this
Source 1 emphasises his longstanding Academy membership; Source 2 does not mention this affiliation
Source 1 gives prominence to television representation work; Source 2 focuses primarily on film
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