Jack Valenti

Even after 38 years as undisputed champion for Hollywood studios, Jack Valenti has no delusions that he is irreplaceable. The day of Nov. 22, 1963, saw to that. Valenti was a political consultant handling press for John F. Kennedy's visit to Texas and was riding in the motorcade when the president was assassinated. Soon after, he was a witness as his friend Lyndon Johnson took the oath as president. What it taught him: "No one is indispensable," Valenti, 82, said at the Cannes Film Festival.

Jack Valenti is busily scripting the end of his legendary life. But, even after 85 years, it's very much a work in progress. Valenti, who ended his 38-year run as Hollywood's leading man in the nation's capital more than two years ago, continues to work five days a week as something of an icon-on-call.

Jack Valenti, Hollywood's top official in Washington for 38 years, is making progress at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore after suffering a stroke last week. Texas native Valenti, 85, joined the Motion Picture Assn. of America in 1966 after serving as a senior aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Valenti served as head of the MPAA until his retirement in 2004, when he was succeeded by Dan Glickman.

Jack Valenti, the urbane Washington lobbyist who served as Hollywood's public face for nearly four decades and was best known for creating the film ratings system, died Thursday afternoon, according to Warren Cowan, his longtime friend. He was 85. Valenti had been in ill health since suffering a stroke in March. He was treated for several weeks at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore but was released Tuesday and returned to his home in Washington, where he died.

We were both privileged to work with Jack Valenti and to know him well. To say his death marks the passing of an era is only part of the story. He leaves a big footprint. There was no better friend, and if you were his friend, there was nothing he wouldn't do for you. He used to greet us with hugs and kisses and he was more concerned about our lives than citing his own accomplishments. "What can I do to help?" is the phrase by which we most remember him.

The audio version of the forthcoming memoir by the late Jack Valenti will be read by Michael Douglas -- including a passage about ... Michael Douglas. Valenti was supposed to narrate "This Time, This Place" himself, but he died before production started, so the Academy Award-winning actor stepped in. The project, from Harmony Books, is due for release June 12. Valenti was close friends with Douglas' father, Kirk Douglas, and wrote warmly of the entire Douglas family.

It was just the way he would have wanted it, guests chimed in on Thursday afternoon at the ArcLight's Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard, where a slew of Hollywood's elite gathered to fete the legacy of industry mogul Jack Valenti. Valenti, who died in April at 85, is most famously recognized as the longtime president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. During his tenure, Valenti created and defended the often-controversial rating systems for films.

At age 83, Jack Valenti finally got top billing. The Motion Picture Assn. of America on Wednesday named its eight-story downtown headquarters after the man who served as Hollywood's top lobbyist for 38 years. A ceremony was held at a breakfast packed with the studio chiefs he used to answer to and the legislators whose arms the genteel Texan deftly twisted until he retired last year. Valenti told the audience that he appreciated the organization "doing this while I'm still alive."

Fifteen months after riding off into the sunset, Jack Valenti has made a temporary U-turn. Hollywood's former top lobbyist, who walked the halls of Congress for 38 years before retiring as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America in 2004, is back working lawmakers in an effort to head off potential television and cable indecency sanctions. Last week, Valenti, 84, resurfaced on Capitol Hill during a forum organized by Sen.

Hollywood lost its top candidate to replace its chief lobbyist, Jack Valenti, as Rep. Billy Tauzin rejected the movie-industry job after receiving a lucrative, eleventh-hour offer to represent major drug companies, it was confirmed Friday. The development deals a setback to the film studios' efforts to replace Valenti, who has said he wants to find a successor after 38 years as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America.