Howard Rothberg, a onetime talent agent and personal manager for Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart and others, died January 17, 2012, in Los Angeles. He was 72.
According to news reports, the cause was cancer.
A native of Chicago, Rothberg graduated from the University of Illinois with degrees in finance and marketing. He served in the Air Force Reserve and worked as a stockbroker before relocating to Los Angeles in 1969.
In the 1960s, Rothberg was an associate producer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He then became an agent at ICM, where he worked in the motion picture department with mentor David Begelman.
In the mid-1970s he founded his own personal management business and represented clients such as Brooks, Gelbart, Dom DeLuise and Anne Bancroft.
Later, Rothberg changed course and became involved in the personal computer industry.
Rothberg is survived by his life partner Dina Gribben, a son, a daughter, a sister and ex-wife Darryle Pollack.