David Begelman

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David Begelman (August 26 1921 – August 7 1995) was an American Hollywood producer who was involved in a studio embezzlement scandal in the 1970's.

Born in New York City, Begelman worked at the Music Corporation of America (MCA) for over eleven years after college, rising to the position of vice president. He left in 1960 to co-found the talent agency Creative Management Associates (CMA) with Freddie Fields. Their clients included Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. He left CMA in 1973 to take over the floundering Columbia Studios. Begelman recruited big-name stars from his former company, dramatically changing the company's image by producing such hits as Tommy (1975), Shampoo (1975), Murder by Death (1976), and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Begelman became among the first Hollywood agents to cross over and rise to the top of the studio system.

In February 1977, actor Cliff Robertson received a note from the IRS indicating he had received $10,000 from Columbia Pictures. He had never received the money, and discovered that his signature on the cashed paycheck had been forged. Robertson's report started a criminal investigation. The LAPD and the FBI verified that the $10,000 check was a forgery, and it was tracked to Begelman. He was ultimately sentenced to community service for the forgeries.

Columbia Pictures sent Begelman on a paid vacation and announced its own investigation. They discovered that Begelman had embezzled an additional $40,000 through other forged paychecks to pay his own massive gambling debts. However, the board of directors wanted to keep the matter out of the press, and after a brief reinstatement, Begelman was quietly fired with a statement from the studio that he had suffered "emotional problems."

Despite the pressure to remain quiet, Robertson and his wife Dina Merrill spoke to the press. David McClintick broke the story in The Wall Street Journal in 1978, later turning it into the best-selling 1982 novel Indecent Exposure. Robertson was blacklisted from the movie production industry for two years, which he spent producing documentaries.

A writer for New West Magazine, working on this story, queried Begelman's claimed alma mater, Yale University, listed in his Who's Who entry. Yale responded that Begelman had never attended that university. New West said "Although Begelman was indicted for forgery and grand theft, the Hollywood types were more outraged that he had listed Yale in Who's Who. Apparently they figured that everybody steals money. It was the fact that he lied about Yale that drove them crazy."

Actor Cliff Robertson also claimed he had been blacklisted during the 1980s for coming forward about the Begelman affair, and had few roles during this period. He eventually had more success as a character actor, including a major role in the 2002 film "Spider-Man".

In 1980, Begelman returned to the production world and became CEO and president of MGM, but with the exception of Poltergeist, he was unable to repeat his success at Columbia. His apparent slump led to his departure from MGM before his four-year contract expired. Later he ran two smaller production companies, where he had moderate success with Weekend at Bernies (1989) and Mannequin (1987). By the mid-1990s, however, Begelman declared bankruptcy. In 1995, David Begelman was found shot dead in a Los Angeles Century Plaza Hotel room, at the age of 73. His death was later ruled as suicide.

Sources

• David McClintick, Indecent Exposure: A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street (1982; New York: William Morrow and Company)
• Time Magazine, "Blowing the Whistle on Fake Alumni," February 5, 1979

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