Longtime Warner Exec Art Stolnitz Dies
Top business affairs officer was 79
Rancho Mirage, CA — Art Stolnitz, former executive vice president of business affairs at Warner Bros. Entertainment, died on March 21 at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Stolnitz, who was 79, passed away due to from complications due to a stroke.
Stolnitz, who spent more than 45 years in the entertainment industry, devoted more than thirty of them to Warner Bros. He joined the company in 1977 and held a number of positions in business affairs at both Warner Bros. Television and Lorimar Television. During his tenure, he was chief business affairs executive on such series as The Dukes of Hazzard, Murphy Brown, China Beach and Night Court.
Following his retirement in 1996, he continued to serve as a consultant to the studio until June 1998.
A native of Rochester, New York, Stolnitz attended the University of Missouri and earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1952. In 2001, in honor of decades of devotion to his law school alma mater, University of Tennessee College of Law’s law library clinic was renamed the Art Stolnitz Legal Clinic Library.
Stolnitz began his entertainment industry career at the William Morris Agency. He then moved into film and television production with ZIV-UA Television, MCA, Selmur Productions and ABC Pictures.
He also enjoyed successful stints with Metromedia Producers Corporation, Charles Fries Productions, Edgar J. Scherick Productions and Sunn Classic Pictures, for whom he produced the NBC primetime series The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.
Other accomplishments included serving as a production executive on Bat Masterson and Highway Patrol, as a business executive he worked on Combat, General Hospital and Young Marrieds and as co-creator and production executive on Shindig.
For 42 years Stolnitz was married to his wife Suzanne, who passed away in December of last year from. His survivors include a son daughter-in-law, a granddaughter and a brother.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Art Stolnitz Law Scholarship Fund may be sent to Office of Development, University of Tennessee, 600 Andy Holt Tower, Knoxville, TN 37997.