He was quickly promoted to agent, with a wage of $38 every week, earlier than finally shifting to the corporate’s (*91*) Angeles workplace, the place he specialised in packaging mid-Nineteen Sixties TV sequence like “Gomer Pyle — USMC” and “That Girl” with the actors, author and administrators represented by William Morris.
But Mr. Shapiro disliked being accountable for so many consumers, and so in 1973 he began his personal administration agency to deal with a number of most popular ones. Mr. West, with whom he had labored at William Morris, quickly joined him, they usually ran Shapiro/West & Associates till Mr. West’s death in 2015.
To push for a sitcom for Mr. Seinfeld, Mr. Shapiro despatched quite a few letters to Brandon Tartikoff, the president of NBC Entertainment. The nudging finally led to a gathering with Mr. Tartikoff and different community executives at which Mr. Seinfeld laid down a agency rule.
“Jerry made one thing clear,” Mr. Shapiro informed the Television Academy. “He said, ‘I’m not going to play a shoe salesman or an accountant or a father with a job.’ And he came up with the premise of the series, that he would play himself.”
In latest years, Mr. Shapiro produced “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast” (2017), a documentary through which Mr. Reiner talked to nonagenarians like Betty White and Dick Van Dyke, and “The Super Bob Einstein Movie” (2021), concerning the comedian actor and author identified for his ongoing tv portrayal of Super Dave Osborne, a hapless parody of a daredevil.
Mr. Shapiro is survived by his former spouse, Melody (Sherr) Shapiro, from whom he was divorced; his daughters, Carrie Shapiro Fuentes and Stefanie Shapiro; a son, Danny; 5 grandchildren; and his brother. His marriage to Diane Barnett ended along with her loss of life in 2005.
Mr. Reiner’s son Rob Reiner, the actor and director, mentioned Mr. Shapiro had been a nurturer, professionally and personally.
“He loved my dad, he looked up to him — he was like a father to him,” mentioned Mr. Reiner, whose firm, Castle Rock Entertainment, produced “Seinfeld.” “George loved being around my dad, and when he started getting older, he’d come over to the house and walk him around the block. That’s the thing you need to know about George: He took care of everybody.”
