Sue Mengers (September 2, 1932 - October 15, 2011) was a talent agent for many significant filmmakers and actors of the New Hollywood generation of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

Early life

Susi Mengers was born to Jewish parents George and Ruth Mengers in Hamburg, Germany. Several years of birth have been published, and while she was living, reporters stated "she won't say just when" she was born. In 1938, she arrived at age five in New York with her parents on the ship S.S. Koenigstein from Antwerp. Neither of her parents spoke English at the time. Settling in Utica, New York, her father became a traveling salesman. After her father's suicide in a Times Square hotel, she relocated to the Bronx with her mother, who took a job as a bookkeeper.

Career

Mengers entered the talent agency business in 1955 as a receptionist at MCA, at that time the dominant company of the trade, with a roster of clients that included Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. She also worked for a while as a secretary for freelance theatrical agency Baum & Newborn. Eventually, she was hired as a secretary at William Morris Agency, a powerhouse in the emerging TV business, where she remained until 1963, when a former Baum & Newborn colleague, Tom Korman, formed his own agency and hired her as a talent agent.

Her first big score was actress Julie Harris, who was primarily a stage performer. To Mengers' surprise, Harris wanted to appear on an episode of Bonanza. Mengers contacted the producer, who commissioned a specially written episode for Harris. Mengers represented Anthony Perkins, who had not worked in the United States since Psycho (1960). She contacted producer Ray Stark and obtained for Perkins a role in director René Clément's film Is Paris Burning? (1966).

In the late 1960s, she was hired by Creative Management Associates (CMA), a boutique agency owned by Freddie Fields. CMA's clients included Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Robert Redford. On December 30, 1974, Fields sold the agency to Marvin Josephson's International Famous Agency (IFA); the two merged to become International Creative Management (ICM). Mengers represented Candice Bergen, Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon, Cher, Joan Collins, Brian De Palma, Faye Dunaway, Bob Fosse, Gene Hackman, Sidney Lumet, Ali MacGraw, Steve McQueen, Mike Nichols, Nick Nolte, Tatum O'Neal, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Barbra Streisand, Gore Vidal, and Tuesday Weld, among others. She retired from ICM in 1986 and returned to the William Morris Agency for a brief stint from 1988-90.

When the Manson family murders took place, Mengers reportedly reassured Streisand: "Don't worry, honey, stars aren't being murdered. Only featured players."

Personal life

On May 5, 1973, she married Belgian writer-director Jean-Claude Tramont (May 5, 1930 - December 27, 1996). Barbra Streisand was her maid of honor. Tramont died on December 27, 1996, aged 66, from cancer.

Death

Mengers died on Saturday, October 15, 2011, from pneumonia at her home in Beverly Hills, California, at age 79. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter posted a written tribute the following morning.

Legacy

• In the 1973 film The Last of Sheila, the character played by actress Dyan Cannon was reportedly based on Mengers.
• In 1981, Mengers expressed disapproval when she thought the character Shelley Winters portrayed in the Blake Edwards' film S.O.B. was based on her. She publicly stated that "An Alp should fall on their house."
• Elizabeth Taylor reportedly based her own character in the 2001 television movie These Old Broads on Mengers.
• In Barbara Walters' 2008 autobiography, Audition: A Memoir, she describes Mengers as "a legend in the business. Smart, tough, and funny, she is also brutally honest."
• On April 24, 2013, Bette Midler opened at the Booth Theatre on Broadway in a one-woman play about Mengers, I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]