Julian Myers

Julian Myers was a publicist who worked with some of the biggest stars in film and television — including John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. A native of Detroit, Myers moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s to become on of the first students at the USC film school.

Over the next three decades he worked at Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox; during those years he worked with Wayne, Monroe and Presley, as well as Betty Grable, Deborah Kerr, Joanne Woodward and many other studio stars. In 1962 he launched his own firm, Julian F. Myers Public Relations. His clients at that time included My Favorite Martian star Ray Walston, Cloris Leachman and George Kennedy.

He closed the business in 1968 to help start television station KKOG in Ventura County. He then worked for many years at American-International Pictures and Hanson and Schwam Public Relations before resuming his own business in the 1990s, with clients such as Dennis Weaver.

In addition to his publicity work, Myers  was an instructor at UCLA Extension and Loyola Marymount University, where he taught entertainment public relations courses.

He also became an avid marathon runner in his later years, and achieved renown for racing in 25 marathons throughout the world, often in suport of philanthropic causes. These included AmigoDay, which he and and his second wife, Patsy, conceived in 2004, as he described in a press release, “to counteract national, regional, religious and other prejudices. It is an international holiday and has been on Voice of America three times: Just greet anyone anywhere, your way, any month’s first Sunday."

For his 90th birthday, Myers celebrated AmigoDay by running 90 miles from San Diego to Los Angeles in 11 days. He had been planning to run 100 miles on his 100th birthday starting in San Diego and finishing in the Los Angeles marathon.

Myers died December 21, 2013. He was 95.