Ovitz Made Deals for Stars--and Himself

Once among the most powerful figures in Hollywood, Michael Ovitz brokered deals for the biggest stars in the business and even whole studios.

But he will probably be best remembered for a deal he made for himself, which made him one of the wealthiest out-of-work people in the world.

A graduate of Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, Ovitz was one of five young agents fired from the powerhouse William Morris talent agency in 1975. The agents went on to form rival Creative Artists Agency, which Ovitz, as president, made into the dominant agency in show business.

CAA’s clients, under his reign, included top actors, directors and writers, such as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman and Michael Crichton.

Ovitz pioneered packaging techniques to get as many CAA clients into projects as possible, and he was considered one of the main forces in causing superstar salaries to reach the $20-million-a-movie level.

Ovitz, now 50, also helped broker several mega-deals, including the Seagram purchase of MCA and Sony’s acquisition of Columbia and TriStar.

He made a fateful decision in 1995 when he decided to leave CAA to join Disney Studios as second in command to the man then described as his best friend, Michael Eisner. But insiders say Ovitz’s militaristic style never fit in with the Disney culture. Several projects he led faltered or fizzled out.

Barely more than a year after taking the job, Ovitz was out of Disney, and he walked away with a severance package larger than the gross national product of some countries--at least $96 million and perhaps much more, depending on how Disney stock fares in coming years.

Since departing the studio in December, Ovitz has stayed out of the public eye. In February, however, he made a $25-million pledge to help rebuild the quake-damaged UCLA Medical Center.