Geffen Producing Director & Oscar Producer Gilbert Cates Passes Away at 77

Famed producer Gilbert Cates has passed away today at the age of 77. Having recently underwent heart surgery, Cates reportedly collapsed today in a parking lot of the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. 

A native New Yorker, Cates is perhaps best known for being the long-time producer of the annual Academy Award shows (fourteen shows in eighteen years).  He also held the post of producing director and President of the Board of the Geffen Playhouse and was the former Dean of the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. 

Cates directed a number of feature films including I Never Sang for My Father (1970) and Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973), Oh, God! Book II (1980) and The Last Married Couple in America (1980).

Cates received a 1991 Emmy Award for for the 63 Annual Academy Awards telecast. He was also the recipient of the Directors Guild's Presidents Award, the guild's Robert B. Aldrich Award, and an Honorary Life Membership.