Aaron Spelling, whose knack for tapping into the public's taste for light entertainment made him both the most prolific and one of the wealthiest producers in television history, died Friday evening. He was 83.
Spelling died at his Holmby Hills mansion of complications from a stroke he suffered Sunday, according to his publicist, Kevin Sasaki. His wife, Candy, and son, Randy, were at his bedside.
Although seldom a darling of critics, Spelling was associated with a dizzying roster of commercial successes, including such long-running series as "Dynasty," "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," "Charlie's Angels," "Melrose Place," "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "7th Heaven."
Aaron Spelling obituary: The obituary of Aaron Spelling in Saturday's Section A said Spelling and Danny Thomas produced "The Danny Thomas Hour," "The Guns of Will Sonnett" and "The Mod Squad" after forming Spelling-Thomas Productions in 1969. The pair formed the company in 1969 but collaborated on "The Danny Thomas Hour" and "The Guns of Will Sonnett" in 1967 and "The Mod Squad" in 1968.
"For a person of such fame, you would marvel at how unassuming, kind and gentle he was," said Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. Redstone said he was not surprised by his friend's death. He and his wife, Paula, had taken the Spellings out for dinner on Aaron's birthday a couple of weeks ago at The Grill. "He was more frail than usual," Redstone told The Times on Friday. "We called Candy yesterday -- she was always very protective of Aaron -- and she said, 'He'll call you in a few days.' "
With over 5,000 hours of TV and more than 70 series bearing his name, as well as dozens of made-for-TV movies and a smattering of feature films, Spelling was recognized by Guinness World Records as the most prolific TV producer of all time. A decade ago, he received a special People's Choice Award that cited his "innate sense of the public taste."
In a sense, Spelling represented one of the final ties to a time when independent producers could amass enormous wealth by developing popular hits, during an era when the major networks were prevented from supplying their own programming -- federal rules that have since been rescinded. And though Spelling remained active as a producer until his death -- including most recently the series "Charmed" -- his company, which he took public in 1986, was sold and became a unit of Viacom, functioning the last few years as a small division of a vast media conglomerate.
A soft-spoken Texan who started his Hollywood career as an actor and became increasingly eccentric later in life, Spelling was such a major supplier of programs to ABC in the 1970s that the network was only half-jokingly nicknamed "Aaron's Broadcasting Company."
- LOS ANGELES COUNTY Feb 25, 1988
- LOS ANGELES COUNTY Mar 02, 1988
- House on the Hill May 01, 1988
