Ethel Winant Dies
Academy Hall of Fame inductee Ethel Winant, who became the first television network female executive in 1973, died on November 29 due to complications from a massive heart attack and stroke. She was 81 years old.
Winant has requested that the family not hold funeral services. Her family requests that any tributes or donations in her name be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund Country Home.
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Winant was one of the great producer-casting directors in television history, credited for the success of series such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Twilight Zone, Playhouse 90 and Hawaii Five-0.
Winant grew up in the farm town of Marysville, California, the daughter of a single mother during the Depression. She enrolled at UC Berkeley, determined to study law or medicine, but fell in love with the theater. She eventually moved to New York to work with theatrical agent William Liebling and his wife, literary agent Audrey Wood. She became heavily involved in the New York theater scene, and stage managed productions of A Streetcar Named Desire in which a young Marlon Brando starred.
Winant made the transition from theater to television when a live television drama named Studio One hired her as a casting director. She cast several emerging talents for the show, including Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston and James Dean. She went on to serve as casting director for the popular series Playhouse 90, working with actors such as Paul Newman, James Dean, Steve McQueen, George Peppard and Jason Robards.
When Playhouse 90 was cancelled, Winant moved to CBS, where she became an associate director of development, assisting in the creation of series such as Lost in Space, Green Acres, Hogan's Heroes and Hawaii Five-O. She became CBS' vice-president in 1973, and was the first woman to ever hold an executive position at any television network.
Over the years, she accumulated several awards, including a special Emmy for Playhouse 90, two Peabodys, the Humanitas Prize, the Christopher Award, The Alice Award, and The Crystal Award from Women in Film. She was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Science's Hall of Fame in 1999.
"I love making shows," said Winant upon being inducted. "I love being on a set. I love working with writers. I think what actors do is magical. The talented directors can visualize. I think that I am the luckiest person in the world that I got to work in the medium I love, and with people I love."
Winant is survived by her three sons: Contemporary and classical musician William Winant, Emmy and Golden Globe award winning Producer/Director Scott Winant and Broadway and television actor/singer Bruce Winant. She spent the past few years living at, and fund raising for, the Motion Picture and Television Fund Country Home in Woodland Hills, CA.
Here are some excerpts from the Archive of American Television’s interview with Ethel Winant. The interview was conducted August 7, 1996 by Sunny Parich.
"It’s a blessing and a curse that I think that the best thing about my life is the people with whom I've worked. When I work with such great people, with great directors. I've even worked with George Roy Hill and John Frankenheimer and Franklin Shaffner and Sidney Lumet and Arthur Penn, Fred Coe and John Houseman. I have spent a good deal of my life fighting with directors and producers. Being stubborn to causes I believe in, and they would kid about that. George would say ‘you're impossible.’ But, that's what I think casting is about. It’s having a vision. …You understand what their vision is, then you try to find the best actor for the part. And, if they don't agree with you at the beginning, it's one's job to try to persuade them. Not to just say, ‘oh well okay.’ Because otherwise you don't need a casting director. You just need the player's directory."
"I'd been the only woman [executive at CBS]. There were things that you’ve got to do. Like, in the executive dining room there was a bathroom, which had no door, no lock. For years when I went to go to the bathroom, I would go outside, take the elevator, go down and go to the lady's room. And, finally, I just said, ‘I'm not gonna do this anymore.’ I figured out that if I took my shoes off and left my shoes outside the door that these guys would know that I was in the bathroom and they wouldn't walk in. I was always the only woman. For years, and years and years."
"Once in a while you see someone that's wonderful and these people say ‘oh, gosh, you gave so-and-so his first job.’ Well, you're crazy if you didn't give them their first job! I gave Bob Redford a big part on Playhouse 90 based on him coming into my office and doing a little reading for the director. When Bob Redford was in his twenties, and he walked into your office, if you didn't hire him you were insane. He was one of the most handsome men I've ever met. He was very compelling. He was very smart and very intelligent, and he read well."