Peter Meyer, Manager and Former William Morris Agent, Dies at 68

Mike Barnes
·3 min read
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Peter Meyer, who represented the likes of Tom Hanks, James Caan and William Shatner as a talent agent at William Morris before spending the past three decades leading his own management firm, has died. He was 68.

Meyer died May 14 in his Los Angeles home after a five-year battle with sarcoma, his sister, writer-producer Patricia K. Meyer (The Women of Brewster Place), announced. Survivors also include his son Chris Meyer, a talent agent at CAA.

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After training under legendary WMA agent Stan Kamen, Meyer was hired as a talent agent in June 1978. His clients would include actors Sterling Hayden, Kevin Costner, Kathleen Turner, Christopher Walken, Steve Guttenberg and David Hasselhoff.

After 11 years at WMA, he launched Meyer Management in 1990 to represent directors, writers, producers and authors, selling their work and facilitating their employment across all entertainment platforms.

He repped Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights), Michael Sloan and Tony Eldridge (The Equalizer), Joel Novoa (Cobra Kai), J.T. Allen (The Lion King), Deric Washburn (The Deer Hunter) and Roger Frappier (The Power of the Dog), among others.

Despite his painful health challenges, Meyer was able to attend the November 2021 premiere of Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, which Frappier produced. That was “just one example of how he relentlessly showed up for his clients,” his sister noted.

“Peter Meyer was my friend, my agent, my precious guide into the Hollywood jungle, always on my side,” Frappier said in a statement. “He was an inspiration on The Power of the Dog from the first day for so many years.”

Meyer was also executive vp at Kings Road Entertainment at the time of his death.

Peter Nicholas Meyer was born on May 11, 1955, in Santa Monica. His parents were TV producer Stanley Meyer (Dragnet) and Dodo Meyer, the daughter of onetime Universal Studios president and chairman Nathan Blumberg.

After attending Harvard School, where he played varsity soccer and rugby, Meyer attended Yale University, where he was Scholar of the House. (His senior thesis in college was titled “MGM and the Studio System in the Age of Mass Production.”)

In 2021, Meyer, his wife, Anna Maria, and his younger son, Chase — a kicker from Mater Dei High School who was being recruited by colleges — sat down with host Fred Roggin for a Thanksgiving Day edition of KNBC-TV’s Roggin’s Heroes.

Meyer had just been released from the hospital, and the family talked about Chase’s fight to win on the field while his father was battling cancer. His wife recounted how Chase would stay with his dad in the hospital until dawn, then head to practice.

“The hardest part is that we can’t go to his games any longer,” Meyer says in the piece. “So his brother Christopher and sister Sasha attend and FaceTime the games so we can watch Chase play on our phones.” (Chase wound up at the University of Pennsylvania.)

He and Anna Maria were married for 31 years, and Sasha just graduated from Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University. “This accomplishment was a longtime dream she shared with my dad,” Chris Meyer told The Hollywood Reporter. “He championed her through the toughest parts of law school and unfortunately passed one week before her graduation.”

In addition to his wife, children and sister, survivors include his brothers, John and Michael, and nephews Zachary, Nathan and Matthew. A memorial is set for 9:30 a.m. on June 13 at St. Monica’s Church in Santa Monica.

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