Murray Weissman was a publicity executive who achieved renown as a canny strategist for Oscar and Emmy Award campaigns. His noteworthy Oscar campaigns included Best Picture winners The Sting, Kramer vs. Kramer, Dances with Wolves, The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, Chicago and Crash. His Emmy victors included AMC's Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
Over the course of a career that spanned six decades, his clients included Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Danny Kaye and Red Skelton, as well as organizations such as the Television Academy, which he served for many years.
Born in Brooklyn, Weissman moved to Los Angeles with his famly in 1936. He graduated from Fairfax High School and USC's School of Journalism. During World War II he served as a radio operator in the Navy.
He broke into the entertainment field doing promotional work for TV Guide and went on to work for ABC, CBS and Universal Television, where he oversaw feature film publicity from 1966 to 1976. Notable campaigns during that time included the 1975 launch of the blockbuster Jaws. He then worked for Lorimar Productions, Columbia Pictures and Rogers & Cowan prior to establishing his own firm in 1981.
In 1988, publicist Tony Angellotti joined him as a partner, and Weissman/Angellotti became active Oscar and Emmy campaign consultants beginning in the 1990s. Weissman and Angellotti remained in business until 1997. Later, with publicist Dick Delson, Weissman formed Weissman/Delson, and in 2006 he formed Weissman/Markovitz Communications with his son-in-law, Rick Markovitz.
Weissman/Markovitz worked on numerous successful Emmy campaigns, including recent work on behalf of Amazon, FX and AMC.
In 2015 Weissman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which took his life on December 28, 2015, five days before he turned 90.
As Weissman's health declined, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Gold Derby, AMC and FX Networks collaborated to fete him with an early 90th birthday party on November 17, 2015. The event included heartfelt reminscences from numerous friends and colleagues.
Upon Weissman's passing, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner said, “Murray Weissman was an essential part of Mad Men. His understanding of creative people, his patience, his cleverness with gatekeepers, and his unflagging taste served as an example to me and to generations of artists. Murray’s belief in the show, in the network’s commitment, and in me personally — expressed by clever, persistent, and always polite persuasion — enabled our success. Murray Weissman was a Zen warrior, proving how belief in yourself and your work can overcome all obstacles.”
