Photo Coverage: BroadwayWorld Remembers David Brown (1916-2010)

Yesterday, February 1, the entertainment community bid farewell to one of its most influential members, Academy Award-winning producer of stage and screen David Brown. He died at his Manhattan home of kidney failure at age 93.

A once-time executive at both Fox and Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood, New York City born Brown was best known as the producing partner of Richard D. Zanuck. They were jointly awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1990 for their achievements in producing. Among their films were "The Sting," the first of their own company's, two of Steven Spielberg's early films, The Sugarland Express and Jaws, and such box office hits as Cocoon, and Driving Miss Daisy. Under the banner of his own Production Company, The Manhattan Project Ltd., Brown produced such hits as Angela's Ashes, Chocolat, Kiss the Girl, and Along Came A Spider.

Says Kit Colden, who worked at the Manhattan Project with Brown: "He always said his job as a producer was to get the project to the point where it could attract a director...Once the director came aboard it was the director's picture."

In addition to his many successful films, Brown would later produce numerous Broadway shows, including Tru, Sweet Smell of Success: The Musical (2002), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005), and the off-Broadway Jerry Herman musical revue Showtune (2003).

Brown additionally authored Brown's Guide to the Good Life: Tears, Fears, and Boredom, which gives advice on life.

Brown was married to a former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine Helen Gurley Brown. He is also survived by a son, Roger Grant Brown, and a daughter Tammy, who is also a producer.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.

David Brown at Literacy Partners for "Evening of Readings" 2001

Helen Gurley Brown and David Brown at The Producers, 2001

David Brown at Literacy Partners for "Evening of Readings" 2001

David Brown at 7th Annual National Arts Awards 2002

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at Sweet Smell of Success, 2002

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at the 7th Annual National Arts Awards, 2002

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at the 7th Annual National Arts Awards, 2002

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at the 7th Annual National Arts Awards, 2002

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at the Lincoln Center's Gala Tribute,  2003

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at the Television & Radio Gala, 2005

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at the Television & Radio Gala, 2005

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at the Television & Radio Gala, 2005

David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown at the Television & Radio Gala, 2005

David Brown at Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,  2005

David Brown at Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,  2005

David Brown and Friends at All About Us, 2007