Arlene Donovan

Top literary agent turned producer with a long-time association with director-writer Robert Benton. Donovan's first involvement with the film industry came when she worked as story editor to director Robert Rossen, joining Columbia Pictures in the same capacity shortly after. In the early 1970s she joined super talent agency ICM in New York as a literary agent representing top writers including Avery Corman who's novel "Kramer vs. Kramer" she sold to producer Stanley Jaffe; she also served as literary head of ICM's motion picture department. The 1979 film of "Kramer vs. Kramer" marked her first association with director-writer Robert Benton; Donovan has subsequently served as producer on Benton's "Still of the Night" (1982), "Places in the Heart" (1984), "Nadine" (1987) and "Billy Bathgate" (1988). She also joined with Benton as executive producer on the 1988 Peter Yates thriller, "The House on Carroll Street" (1988).