Louis C. Blau, Entertainment Attorney Who Represented Stanley Kubrick, Dies at 99
Entertainment attorney Louis C. Blau, who represented directors Stanley Kubrick and Francois Truffaut, Motown founder Berry Gordy and actors including Donald O’Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Walter Matthau, Richard Widmark and Lana Turner, has died. He was 99.
Blau died in the Bel Air home where he and his wife lived for more than 60 years.
He was a senior partner at Loeb & Loeb for decades until his retirement in the late 1990s. Blau was Kubrick’s attorney for more than 40 years (the two are pictured together above). When a number of Italian actors arrived in Hollywood in the 1950s, he represented Alida Valli, Valentina Cortese, Rossano Brazzi and Pier Angeli. Other American actors he represented included Dan Duryea, Arlene Dahl, Fernando Lamas and Richard Basehart.
He repped authors as well, including “Roots” writer Alex Haley, Danielle Steel, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Alvin Toffler, Larry Gelbart and Barnaby Conrad.
Blau attended L.A. High School and later graduated from UCLA. He then worked his way through USC Law School with a job at Fox Studios as a night cashier.
When World War II broke out he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a pilot in the 404th Bomb Squadron stationed in the Aleutian Islands. He flew many missions over Japan and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was later stationed in Peru as air attache and spent many years in South America. He resumed his legal career at the end of the war.
One of the happiest moments for the staunch lifelong Democrat came when he read in an L.A. Times article in 1973 that he was on Richard Nixon’s famous “enemies” list. His many philanthropic endeavors including his alma mater UCLA and the Music Center.
He is survived by his wife Evelyne Blau, son Jimmie Wood, a musician, and daughter in-law Laura Engel of the Film Music agency Kraft Engel Management; his daughters and sons-in-law Gabrielle Kraft & John Humphreys and Eloise & Bruce Tucker; and a number of grandchildren.
Related stories
Anna Gordy Gaye, Ex-Wife of Marvin Gaye and Sister of Berry Gordy, Dies at 92
HBO Eyeing Spielberg's Napoleon Mini Based on Kubrick Script
Actress, Writer Chris Chase Dies
Get more from Variety and Variety411: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
