[Deathwatch] David Charnay, author/former television executive, 90

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Former chairman of Four Star Television, David Charnay, dies
Sunday, October 6, 2002 Posted: 9:30 AM EDT (1330 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/06/obit.charnay.ap/index.html

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- David Charnay, the former chairman of
Four Star Television Productions and founder of Allied Public
Relations, has died. He was 90. 

Charnay died Wednesday of complications following surgery at Cedars
Sinai Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. 

Charnay founded the New York City-based public relations firm in the
early 1950s. Clients included John L. Lewis, Madame Chiang Kai-shek,
Cecil B. DeMille, Jimmy Hoffa, Richard M. Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey.


In 1967, Charnay led a group that bought controlling interest in Four
Star Productions, the television production and distribution company
founded by several stars, including Dick Powell, David Niven and
Charles Boyer, in 1955. 

He served as president, chief executive and chairman of the board of
Four Star, turning the company into a powerhouse syndicator of its
large collection of shows that included "The Rifleman," "Wanted: Dead
or Alive," "The Rogues" and "The Big Valley." 

Born in New York City, Charnay attended Wesleyan University and New
York University before going to work as a reporter for the New York
Daily News and the New York Daily Mirror. During World War II, he
served in the Office of Strategic Services. 

After leaving public relations in the early '60s, Charnay served as
chairman of Highway Trailers, Clinton Engines and Ward La France, and
later was president and chief executive of Transcontinental Industries.


Also a novelist, Charnay published his first book, "Target 1600," a
political thriller, in 1980. His second, "Operation Lucifer: The Chase,
Capture and Trial of Adolf Hitler," was published last year. 

Charnay is survived by his wife, Martha, three children, a sister and
seven grandchildren. 

His funeral was scheduled for Tuesday in New York City. A memorial
service was also being planned in Los Angeles. 



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