Ray Stark

Raymond Otto Stark was born on October 3, 1915, in Manhattan, the second child of Sadie (née Gotlieb) and Maximilian Stark. Ray grew up on East 58th street near Central Park. It was Ray's mother who took a dutiful approach to his education, grooming him to be well-read and precocious. Ray attended grade school in Manhattan, skipping two grades, before attending The Kohut School, a boarding school for boys in Harrison, New York. There, Stark's major scholastic interest was writing; he wrote articles for the school's newspaper, The Kohut Klipper, in which his first article was an interview with actress Ginger Rogers whom he brazenly approached after seeing her in a play.

In 1931, at 15 years of age, Stark was the youngest student ever admitted to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. At Rutgers, Stark continued to take strong interest in literature (one of his favorite classes was on Shakespeare) but he did not know how to pursue it occupationally. In 1935, Stark returned to Manhattan to attend NYU Law, although he did not graduate.

As Stark's interests shifted to journalism and entertainment, he took an opportunity to live with a friend in Los Angeles. Following a job at Forest Lawn Cemetery as a florist and then as writing assistant to comedian and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, Stark took a job as a publicist for Warner Bros. Studios in 1937.

Stark served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.[1][2]

In 1957 Ray Stark and Eliot Hyman founded Seven Arts Productions, an independent production company which made movies for release by other studios. Stark was head of production, in charge of buying film properties and supervising production, while Hyman was instrumental in forming deals and handling finances. West Side Story, Anatomy of a Murder, By Love Possessed, The Nun’s Story, and Night of the Iguana, were among some of the first works purchased by Stark with Seven Arts. However, Stark chose to produce The World of Suzie Wong first, a lesser-known play outside of Seven Arts.

The World of Suzie Wong, which originally cast the lead from the Broadway production, France Nuyen, went on to star and mark the discovery of Chinese actress Nancy Kwan. Interpersonal complications with France Nuyen interfered with shooting, and Stark replaced her with newcomer Nancy Kwan, who was later nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actress in the role.

In 1966, Stark left Seven Arts to found his own production company, Rastar Productions. Rastar's first production was the film version of Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand. The company went on to produce many notable films from the 1970s to the early 2000s, including The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), The Way We Were (1973), Murder By Death (1976), The Goodbye Girl (1977), Seems Like Old Times (1980), Annie (1982), and Steel Magnolias (1989). In 1974, Rastar was acquired by Columbia Pictures, which included Rastar Productions, Rastar Pictures, Rastar Features, and Rastar Television. Ray Stark then founded Rastar Films, later selling that to Columbia Pictures as well in 1980.[1]

Stark's final film (as Rastar Television) was the 2000 TV movie Alley Cats Strike, which was co-produced by Walt Disney Television and aired on Disney Channel. Rastar was closed when Stark himself died in 2004 and was folded into Columbia Pictures.

Although stage and film actress Anne Bancroft was the initial first choice to play Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, (the biopic production based on Stark's iconic mother in-law), Stark felt drawn to Barbra Streisand, an unknown singer and performer on the rise in New York City. After a long courtship with the then unknown, Stark and Jerome Robbins, (the production supervisor and director of the Broadway show) decided to cast her as their lead.

After an arduous rehearsal period filled with revisions and rewrites, Funny Girl opened to rave reviews on Broadway and became a critical and commercial success. Stark had the smash hit he'd hoped for, and Streisand emerged as a full-fledged star. For both, it was the beginning of an often stormy relationship that would span four more motion pictures over the course of eleven years. Following the Broadway show, Stark formed Rastar Productions in order to finance the film version of Funny Girl due to foiled deals with Columbia and Paramount Pictures. After a year of difficult negotiations, Stark signed Streisand to Rastar Productions in a lengthy contract that bound Stark and Streisand to make four more films together: The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), The Way We Were starring Robert Redford, directed by Sydney Pollack (1973), For Pete’s Sake (1974), and Funny Lady (1975).[2]

A close friend and creative confidant of John Huston, Stark produced four highly successful films with the visionary director. Stark and Huston formed a close bond while shooting Tennessee Williams' The Night of The Iguana (1964) starring Richard Burton and Ava Gardner on-location in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Following their success, Huston and Stark went on to create Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), based on the 1941 novel by author Carson McCullers and starring Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor, Fat City (1972), and the commercially successful 1982 adaption of Annie the musical starring Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, Bernadette Peters, Geoffrey Holder, Edward Herrmann, and Aileen Quinn in her film debut.

Over an 18-year period Stark produced eleven scripts by acclaimed playwright Neil Simon, including The Sunshine Boys (1975), for which George Burns won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor; Murder by Death (1976), featuring an eclectic cast of Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Maggie Smith; The Goodbye Girl (1977) with Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason, for which Dreyfus won the Academy Award for Best Actor; and California Suite (1978), which won Maggie Smith the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Others in the incredibly productive Neil Simon/ Rastar collaboration included Seems Like Old Times (1980), with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase; The Cheap Detective, starring Peter Falk, and Chapter Two with James Caan and Marsha Mason.

In 1980, Stark's body of work was officially recognized when he received the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, a rare honor given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for lifetime achievement in film. Presented by close friend and colleague actor Kirk Douglas, whom Stark represented at Famous Artists Agency, Douglas introduced Stark as the unseen "Oz" of Hollywood.[1] Stark humbly received the award, fighting impulses of stage fright to deliver a thoughtful yet funny speech. Stark was known for his distaste for public appearances and belief that talent, not producers, should receive all public attention.[1] Stark was later awarded the David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award from the Producers Guild of America in 1999, with guild President Thom Mount calling him "one of Hollywood's most prolific film producers ... the stuff of legend".[2]

Soon after relocating to Los Angeles from New York City, Ray met his future wife, Frances Brice, at a party. She mentioned that her mother was “Baby Snooks,” the legendary comedic actress Fanny Brice, and her father was Nicky Arnstein. Although Stark failed to remember who the actress was, he soon fell madly in love with Fran, saying she was the most charming girl he'd ever met. Following a brief courtship, they were married on September 26, 1940. The couple had two children, Peter, and Wendy Stark Morrissey. Peter Stark (1944–1970) died by suicide in New York City.[6] Ray Stark died of heart failure in his Los Angeles home on January 17, 2004, aged 88.[1]

Despite a busy schedule throughout his career, Ray made time for his interest in horses. Ray and his wife Frances owned Rancho Corral de Quati, a 300-acre (1.2 km2) ranch in Los Olivos, California and were breeders of Thoroughbred racehorses.[7] A passionate horse lover, Stark was twice named California Thoroughbred Breeder of the Year.

Stark was an avid art collector. He amassed a broad collection of outdoor sculptures by artist and close friend Henry Moore, and his walls were adorned with pieces by Monet, Picasso, and Kandinsky. Stark's outdoor sculpture collection was bequeathed to the Getty Museum, where it is on display. The Fran and Ray Stark Sculpture Garden opened in 2007 and accounts for approximately 75% of the sculptures in the museum's collection.[8]

As producer unless otherwise noted.

• Ray Stark at IMDb
• Ray Stark at the Internet Broadway Database