Frank Mancuso

Frank Mancuso's nearly 50-year career in films began at the movies. A theater usher and assistant manager during his high school years, Mancuso parlayed his experience into an industry job as a film booker and was hired as a buyer by Paramount Pictures. Mancuso spent the next 20 years climbing the corporate ladder until, in 1984, he had attained the top tier of Chairman and CEO of the Hollywood studio. As gentlemanly in his business dealings as former CEO Barry Diller had been abrasive and cutthroat, Mancuso ran Paramount after the model of a family business, preferring a reputation as a consensus-maker to that of a deal-broker. His successes during this period included such mega-hits as "Top Gun" (1986), "Pretty in Pink" (1986), "The Untouchables" (1987), "Fatal Attraction" (1987) and "Ghost" (1990) but he was brought down in 1991 by a string of box office disappointments. Released from Paramount, Mancuso landed at an ailing MGM in 1993, as the former super-studio prepared to merge in a life-saving measure with a shuttered United Artists. Despite the best efforts of "the booker from Buffalo," MGM-UA continued to flounder and Mancuso was bounced from his position of power in 1999. Turning away from the business due more to advanced age than diminished prospects, Mancuso retreated into a well-earned retirement. Never a household name beyond the entertainment industry's corporate inner circle, Frank Mancuso nonetheless left an enduring legacy within the film community, which regarded him as "the Godfather of Hollywood."