Hillard Elkins, a talent agent, manager and producer whose career included significant contributions to theater, film and television, died December 1, 2010, a heart attack Wednesday at Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 81.
According to news reports, the cause was a heart attack.
Elkins, whose career highlights included bringing the nude musical Oh! Calcutta! to Broadway and producing the 1960s counterculture touchstone Alice’s Restaurant, also produced several made-for-television movies.
Always drawn to the theater, Elkins, who was born October 18, 1929, in New York City, was a drama student at Brooklyn College when he opened a tent theater in Queens with his friend Gordon Davidson, who later became founding artistic director of the Center Theatre Group at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles.
Although he originally intended to pursue law studies, he changed course after he took a job in 1950 as an assistant at the William Morris talent agency. Following military service during the Korean War, he formed his own agency, and later headed his own management company with clients that included such stars as Steve McQueen, Sammy Davis Jr., Robert Culp and James Coburn.
He enjoyed one of his earliest successes in 1964 as a producer of a musical adaptation of the Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy, with Davis in the lead role of a conflicted boxer.
1969 was a year of major achievements for Elkins. On Broadway, the musical comedy Oh! Calcutta! sparked controversy with its matter-of-fact nudity and profanity. Critics slammed it, but audiences came in droves, and the show went on to run on Broadway for 20 year run on Broadway, ending in 1989 after more than 7,200 performances. Elkins co-produced a 1972 film version.
The same year, Elkins produced the feature film Alice’s Restaurant, directed by Arthur Penn and based on the rambling antiwar song by Arlo Guthrie — who also starred.
Elkins’ other Broadway credits include The Rothschilds, An Evening with Richard Nixon and…, and Sizwe Banzi Is Dead.
In addition, he produced the 1971 film A New Leaf, starring Elaine May and Walter Matthau, and the 2003 biopic Stander, with Thomas Jane.
His television credits included the films Deadly Game, Father & Son: Dangerous Relations, Ray Alexander: A Taste for Justice, A Father for Charlie, Ray Alexander: A Menu for Murder, Run for the Dream: The Gail Devers Story, Inside, In His Father’s Shoes, Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool, and the documentary series Sex, Censorship and the Silver Screen.
Elkins won a Daytime Emmy as executive producer of the made-for-television movie Inside his Father’s Shoes, and an Image Award for the television documentary For
Love of Liberty.
Survivors include his sixth wife, Sandi Love, two sons and a grandchild.