Martin Starger Dies: First ABC Entertainment President, Producer For ‘Nashville’ And ‘Mask’ Was 92
01.06.2024 - 21:29
/ deadline.com
Martin Starger, a producer for such films as Robert Altman’s Nashville and Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask, died Friday at 92 in his Los Angeles home of natural causes. His death was confirmed by his niece, casting director Ilene Starger.
“He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man,” Starger said. “He had wonderful taste in projects, and, on a highly personal level, he was like a father to me, given that his younger brother, my father, died very suddenly when I was a teenager.”
As the first president of ABC Entertainment, he helped bring such projects as Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man to television.
As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982).
Martin Starger was born on May 8, 1932, to Rose and Isidore Starger of the Bronx, New York.
Starger received a Bachelor of Science degree in Motion Picture Techniques from City College, and graduated with cum laude honors. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa while a student.
He was drafted into Army service in 1953, and was assigned to the Signal Corps Motion Picture Location. He was a motion picture photographer at the Signal Corps Pictorial Center (the Army’s film production studio).
He was sent to U.S. Army Headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii and worked there in all phases of motion picture production. He wrote, directed, photographed and edited various films – documentaries and features – for television, the Dept. of Defense, and for newsreels. He did additional production work in Hawaii as a writer and director.
After the Army,