Emmet G. Lavery, Jr., was an attorney who became a television executive and, later, a successful producer.
The son of playwright turned film and television writer Emmet G. Lavery, he was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. His father wrote such Broadway hits as The Magnificent Yankee, and earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay of The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell. The younger Lavery served in the Army in 1945-46, and earned both undergraduate and law degrees at UCLA.
Emmet G. Lavery, Jr., was an attorney who became a television executive and, later, a successful producer.
The son of playwright turned film and television writer Emmet G. Lavery, he was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. His father wrote such Broadway hits as The Magnificent Yankee, and earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay of The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell. The younger Lavery served in the Army in 1945-46, and earned both undergraduate and law degrees at UCLA.
He worked as an attorney until 1963, when he was recruited by former NBC president Sylvester “Pat” Weaver, to join the Subscription Television as vice president and resident counsel. He went on to work as a business affairs executive at 20th Century Fox Television and Paramount Television.
In 1975 he established Emmet G. Lavery Jr. Productions, and in the years that followed he produced such made-for-TV movies as Delancey Street, The Ghost of Flight 401, Act of Violence and Nero Wolfe, and the drama series Serpico. In 1981 he returned to the executive ranks with a job at DLT Entertainment, where he worked until he retired in 2010.
Lavery died February 16, 2014, in Encino, California. He was 86.
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