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Frank Mancuso Sr., a distribution executive who went on to head two of Hollywood’s major studios, Paramount and MGM/UA, died on Oct. 1 at his home in Los Angeles from complications of cancer, per a family statement.
He was 93.
Mancuso, known as the Godfather or Gentleman Frank, worked his way slowly up the ranks, spending almost three decades with Paramount Pictures, starting as a film buyer and ending as chairman and CEO. He then went on to the chairmanship of the troubled MGM/UA and helped engineer a sale of the company for $1.3 billion in 1996 to its former owner, Kirk Kerkorian, and Australia’s Seven Network.
Mancuso worked for Paramount in Toronto, Buffalo, New York and Los Angeles. He became known as one of the top distribution and marketing executives in the business through his vast knowledge of the exhibition business and his chance-taking release of Paramount Pictures during what were once considered low-ebb periods in the year. He also pioneered the synergy of music videos and soundtracks with motion pictures, most prominently with “Saturday Night Fever” and “Flashdance.”
After Barry Diller left the studio in 1984 and Gulf and Western head Martin Davis passed over Michael Eisner, Mancuso came to head the studio despite his lack of experience as a maker (as opposed to a seller) of films. With production headed for a time by the experienced Ned Tanen, Mancuso continued Paramount’s winning ways, only to fall out with the studio at the end of the raucous ’80s when recession hit and he had a few costly flops. He was ousted by Davis in favor of producer Stanley Jaffe and sued the studio, winning a settlement estimated as high as $20 million.
In 1993 he took over the moribund MGM/UA from Alan Ladd Jr. and proceeded to make it a viable studio for sale, succeeding in 1996. He remained at the helm until 1999, when he retired.
After a long, two-decade rise at the studio, Mancuso was, by 1983, president of Paramount’s motion picture division under company chairman Diller and president Eisner.
During that period, he was envied as one of the top distribution and marketing minds in the business. It was he who decided to take a chance and release a relatively adult-oriented romancer, “An Officer and a Gentleman,” in summer, then an exclusively kid’s season. With help from a special in-house-cut music video, the film caught on and grossed more than $100 million. Music videos using film footage also helped propel 1983’s “Flashdance” into a phenomenon. He also took a chance releasing the drama “Terms of Endearment” in November, hoping to build to a major Christmas push. The calculated move succeeded when reviews were enthusiastic, and the film went on to be a major grosser and win the Oscar for best picture.
The fall of 1984 saw the motion picture industry change drastically as many of the major studios changed heads — and in some cases owners. Mancuso was selected to run Paramount after Diller went off to head 20th Century Fox. Almost immediately, Eisner defected to Disney along with several key Par executives, turning that studio into a major contender. For a time, Mancuso churned out profitable films such as “Top Gun,” “Fatal Attraction” and the first two “Beverly Hills Cop” pics with the studio’s two major stars, Tom Cruise and Eddie Murphy. After Tanen left in 1987 and was replaced by Sidney Ganis, another marketing executive, the fortunes changed. There were still successes, but there were also “Days of Thunder,” “The Two Jakes” and “The Godfather: Part III,” all of which soured Martin Davis on Mancuso.
In addition, Mancuso’s gentlemanly conduct came to be perceived as soft as the studio tried to hold the line against inflated star salaries for the likes of Murphy and Cruise as well as producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who had given the studio “Top Gun” and “Beverly Hills Cop” but also the over-budget “Days of Thunder.”
It all unraveled in 1991, when Davis formally turned on Mancuso and hired Stanley Jaffe to oversee the company, which would later be sold to Viacom. Mancuso filed a $45 million breach-of-contract suit, contending that he’d been fired, and later settled for as much as $20 million. This left him free to pursue other opportunities.
He took the unlikely and highly risky job of running MGM/UA, a shell of its former self, highly leveraged and deeply in debt. Starting in 1993, with the support of Crédit Lyonnais, Mancuso helped pare down the debt and start churning out successful movies. He hired CAA agent Mike Marcus to run MGM and former WB exec and producer John Calley to start up the then-defunct UA. Major hits like “The Birdcage,” “GoldenEye” and “Species” followed.
When it came time to sell the studio in 1996, Mancuso engineered the sale to its former owner Kirk Kerkorian and Australian entertainment corporation Seven Network, reaping financial benefits for the sale and the continued prosperity of the studio. Mancuso remained chairman-CEO of MGM after the sale.
In March 1999, MGM paid Sony $5 million, making the former the clear and sole owner of the lucrative James Bond property.
The next month, as the studio endured a yearlong box-office drought, Mancuso resigned, and Alex Yemenidjian took his place.
Mancuso was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and graduated from the State University of New York. From 1958 to 1962, he worked as a buyer and operations supervisor for Basil Enterprises, a motion picture theatrical circuit. He joined Paramount in 1962 as its Buffalo branch booker, later becoming the area’s sales representative and branch manager.
In 1970, Paramount appointed him VP-general sales manager for Paramount Pictures Canada. He became president in 1972 and stayed in Toronto for six years. Then he moved out west and became Western divisional manager for the company, based in Los Angeles. A year later, he moved to New York as general sales manager and then VP of domestic distribution; by 1983, he was president of Par’s motion picture division.
Mancuso was chairman of the corporate board of the Motion Picture and Television Fund.
He met his wife Frances when he was 12 years old. They had two children: a daughter, Maria, and a son, producer Frank Mancuso Jr.
