The Silver-age Warner Brother's Chief Exec TED ASHLEY has died in New York

Well geeks, ol' Father Geek is here to report that the man who helmed Warner's thru their Silver-age of Film productions has died of complications of acute Leukemia this past Saturday at the age of 80 in New York.

Ted held court over the second great age of Warner's film (1970-80), they've yet to have a third. Some of the Hits under his tutelage include: Klute; Dog Day Afternoon; the Superman series; Blazing Saddles; the Dirty Harry series; A Clockwork Orange; All The President's Men; Deliverance; Chariots of Fire; Woodstock; What’s Up Doc?; Jeremiah Johnson; The Shining; and The Exorcist, to name only a few.

He was the man ultimately responsible for greenlighting those projects and many more. Under his direction the studio took Clint Eastwood and others under their wings and built them into legendary super stars. He gave Directors like Stanley Kubrick the slack they needed to produce truely great motion pictures. His influence extended over all of that era's Warners flicks as well as all films released under the First Artists, Orion and Ladd Company banners.

His old Warner's front office buddy John Calley is still in the biz over at Sony, but what the American movie industry, and especially Warner Brothers Studios needs today more than anything is knowledgeable, caring, and effective studio heads like Ted Ashley. Men of vision with the guts to see those visions through to the end are sorely lacking among the "Suits" and "bean counters" of today's Hollywood Front Offices. Ted Ashley and his kind gave a great big damn... He will be greatly missed, and we are all poorer for his passing.