Hollywood producer Bernie Brillstein dies

LOS ANGELES – Bernie Brillstein, a legendary show business talent manager and producer who guided the careers of performers John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Muppets creator Jim Henson and helped bring “Saturday Night Live” and other shows to television, has died. He was 77.

Brillstein, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, died Thursday evening at the Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles, Brillstein Entertainment Partners announced Friday.

The white-haired and bearded Brillstein – “he looks and sounds like a raucous Santa Claus,” a New York Times writer observed a decade ago – launched his more than 50-year career in the mail room of the William Morris Agency in New York in 1956 and rose through the ranks to become a talent agent.

After founding the Brillstein Company in 1969 – the first of three management and production companies to bear his name – he helped launch “Hee Haw,” the long-running country music-comedy show.

He also helped launch “The Muppet Show” and was instrumental in bringing “Saturday Night Live” to NBC in 1975.

As a manager, Brillstein represented the long-running comedy show’s creator-executive producer Lorne Michaels, as well as Belushi, Radner and Dan Aykroyd.

“He was unwavering in his belief in me,” Michaels said Friday, adding that he couldn’t have done “Saturday Night Live” without Brillstein.

“He was just that voice in your ear,” Michaels said. “He believed in what you’re doing and helped give you confidence, but he also was really smart about show business, even the most fundamental stuff.

“Even though what I was doing (on ‘Saturday Night Live’) was more rock ’n’ roll and different generation and different sensitivity (than Brillstein was used to), at the core he knew about audience and talent and how to put on a show. He loved show business, and he was unabashed in how much he loved it.”

Brillstein later executive produced the films “The Blues Brothers,” “Ghostbusters,” “Dragnet,” “Happy Gilmore” and “The Cable Guy.”

And for television, he executive produced the series “ALF,” “Buffalo Bill,” “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” “The Dana Carvey Show” and “The Martin Short Show.”