LOS ANGELES _ Brad Grey, who ran Paramount Pictures for more than a decade and was in some ways a throwback to a bygone era in Hollywood, died of cancer Sunday at his home in Holmby Hills, a family spokeswoman said. He was 59.
A former talent manager and successful TV producer, Grey was known as a shrewd and tenacious figure in a notoriously cutthroat business, forging close and often fruitful relationships with Hollywood heavyweights including Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and J.J. Abrams.
Grey oversaw some major hits for Paramount Pictures, such as the "Star Trek" and "Transformers" films, but his legacy at the historic studio was marked by turbulence in more recent years as Paramount lost its footing. He was ousted from the Viacom Inc.-owned studio in February, following a long period of box-office stumbles and financial losses.
Friends and colleagues who were unaware of Grey's health problems were stunned by the news.
"Honestly, I'm crushed," said Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of the Weinstein Co. who gave Grey his first entertainment industry job. "His genius at picking and identifying talent was unprecedented."
Born in the Bronx, the youngest child of a New York garment industry salesman, Grey sold belt buckles made in his grandfather's factory when he was in high school. While in college, he got his foot in the door working as a gofer for a concert promoter named Harvey Weinstein, who would later go on to co-found Miramax Film Corp.
Before joining Paramount, Grey was a partner at Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, where he represented stars such as Brad Pitt and Adam Sandler and produced such TV shows as HBO's "The Sopranos" and "Real Time With Bill Maher."
Grey was, in many ways, a throwback to an earlier era of moguldom, enjoying a conspicuous A-list lifestyle.
He bought a sprawling Holmby Hills residence where Frank Sinatra had lived in the 1940s. And in New York he kept a residence at the Carlyle Hotel, the ritzy building that was once the Manhattan home of President John F. Kennedy and more recently Viacom Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone. When he gave reporters interviews, a choice booth at the Beverly Hills Hotel's Polo Lounge was a preferred locale.
Grey moved with ease among the highest echelons of Hollywood, befriending the stars who appeared in his films and TV shows. He formed the production company Plan B Entertainment with then husband-and-wife Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston in 2001.
And in 2011 he married second wife Cassandra Huysentruyt, a creative consultant two decades his junior, in a wedding attended by Pitt, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Cruise. The wedding was held at the former Sinatra abode, which Grey later tore down, building a modern residence in its place.
Unlike many of his contemporaries at rival studios, Grey didn't spend decades working his way up the corporate ladder to be named head of Paramount in 2005. Instead, he parlayed a successful run as a manager and head of Brillstein-Grey into the chairmanship of the iconic studio co-founded by Adolph Zukor. In making this jump from representing actors to pulling the strings at a global conglomerate, Grey's trajectory was similar to the likes of former agents Ron Meyer or Michael Ovitz.
He was hired by former Viacom CEO Tom Freston to run Paramount, replacing Sherry Lansing. Though he was considered a novice at navigating the corporate culture of a major Hollywood studio, Viacom hoped Grey would bring a fresh perspective to the movie business.
Grey had some key successes early in his tenure at Paramount. He led the acquisition of DreamWorks SKG, the studio created by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. He is also credited with securing a deal to release movies from Marvel Studios. Movies from DreamWorks Animation and Marvel helped round out Paramount's lineup with reliable blockbusters.
But Paramount suffered from a lack of its brand-name franchises, especially compared with rivals Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, which invested heavily in entertainment brands. Grey's allies blamed the deficit on belt-tightening by the parent company, Viacom, which was spending billions to buy back shares.
Meanwhile, key deals with Marvel and DreamWorks went by the wayside during Grey's tenure, leaving a big hole in its business. Disney bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in 2009 and DreamWorks Animation films moved to rival 20th Century Fox after Spielberg and Geffen had already left Paramount when Geffen, the music mogul, clashed with Grey.
Grey was also caught in the middle of a tumultuous battle for control of Viacom last year, in which then-CEO Philippe Dauman was pitted against controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone. Dauman had proposed selling 49 percent of the studio to pay down debt and boost Viacom's flagging stock. Redstone, who controls a $40 billion media empire that encompasses Viacom and CBS Corp., adamantly opposed the plan.
Grey had long been close to Redstone and his daughter Shari Redstone, who had been intensely critical of Dauman. Dauman was ejected from Viacom last year.
As the corporate drama swirled, Grey faced pressure to turn around the studio, which had been hobbled by a thin slate of movies and mounting flops. The studio lost $445 million in fiscal 2016 because of a string of box-office misfires, including "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" and "Zoolander 2."
Grey was known to be laissez-faire with creative decisions at the studio. In person, he was soft-spoken and even seemed distant to some. While many appreciated the long tether he would give to his most trusted filmmakers, that approach sometimes backfired, as when Scorsese's long-gestating religious epic "Silence" grossed just $7 million at the box office. But despite criticisms, many filmmakers who worked with Grey praised his hands-off approach with talent.
"He let us make movies the way we've wanted to make them," Abrams said of Grey in a 2016 article in The Times.
Grey is survived by his wife, Cassandra Grey; their son Jules; his three grown children, Sam, Max and Emily, from his marriage to Jill Grey; his mother, Barbara Schumsky; his brother, Michael Grey; and his sister, Robin Grey.
There will be a small private funeral service this week, and a memorial service will be scheduled in the coming weeks, the family said.
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