Roger Mayer was a television executive, documentary producer and film preservation advocate.
Mayer got his start in 1952 as a lawyer for Columbia Pictures, where he later became a studio executive. In 1961 he became assistant general manager at MGM, and eventually became vice president of administration and president of MGM Laboratories Inc. In 1986 he moved to Turner Entertainment, where he was the president and COO until he retired in 2005.
Mayer’s work in television was focused heavily on documentary films and documentary series, such as his production work on the documentaries Stardust: The Bette Davis Story, Garbo, The Adventures of Errol Flynn, So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM and Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star. In 2004 he won an Emmy Award as the executive producer of the PBS American Masters episode "Judy Garland: By Myself."
He was also an advocate for film preservation, serving as a member of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress and chairman of the National Film Preservation Foundation. In 2005 he received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Roger Mayer was a television executive, documentary producer and film preservation advocate.
Mayer got his start in 1952 as a lawyer for Columbia Pictures, where he later became a studio executive. In 1961 he became assistant general manager at MGM, and eventually became vice president of administration and president of MGM Laboratories Inc. In 1986 he moved to Turner Entertainment, where he was the president and COO until he retired in 2005.
Mayer’s work in television was focused heavily on documentary films and documentary series, such as his production work on the documentaries Stardust: The Bette Davis Story, Garbo, The Adventures of Errol Flynn, So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM and Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star. In 2004 he won an Emmy Award as the executive producer of the PBS American Masters episode "Judy Garland: By Myself."
He was also an advocate for film preservation, serving as a member of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress and chairman of the National Film Preservation Foundation. In 2005 he received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Mayer died March 24, 2015, in Los Angeles. He was 88.
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