Frank Price, the visionary behind some of Hollywood’s most iconic films of the 1980s and a pioneering force in television, has died at 95. He passed away in the comfort of his home in Santa Monica, California.
One of his sons, Roy Price, announced his death on Monday via Instagram, writing that he “passed away peacefully in his sleep this morning at 95. He lived a full life and we will miss him deeply.”
Throughout his more than 30-year career, Price oversaw and greenlit many iconic 1980s films, including the 1982 romantic comedy Tootsie, Ghostbusters in 1984 and Out of Africa in 1985. Earlier, in the 1970s, he served as president of Universal TV, overseeing hit shows such as Columbo, Ironside and Kojak.
Price was born in Decatur, Illinois, to William and Winnifred Price on May 17, 1930. Before attending college, his family moved around a lot due to his father’s job as an electrician, constantly trying to find work. He lived in Los Angeles for five years during his elementary school years, where his mother worked as a waitress in a cafeteria at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, exposing Price to the entertainment industry at an early age. Afterwards, his family moved to Flint, Michigan, for high school.
After serving in the military for a year, he attended Michigan State University. According to The New York Times, Price was originally drawn to theater, and he acted throughout high school and college. After working as a copy boy for The Flint Journal, he moved to New York City and transferred to Columbia University, with hopes of starting a career in journalism. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.
He decided to drop out of college at 19 years old to work full-time as a reader in the CBS-TV Story Department. He eventually moved up and was promoted as a story editor and writer, where he worked on various shows such as Westinghouse Studio One, Suspense and The Web. After working at CBS for two years, Price moved to Los Angeles and became a story editor at Columbia Pictures, where he worked on shows like Ford Theater, Father Knows Best, Playhouse 90 and the Emmy-winning Matinee Theater.
In 1959, Price joined Universal TV as an associate producer. After a couple of years, he made his way up from artist to studio executive, where he was named vice president in 1961. 10 years later, he was promoted to senior vice president. In 1978, he became president of the studio and was then promoted to CEO a year later. During his time at Universal, he was credited with helping to develop new television formats, such as the “made-for-TV movie” and the miniseries. Other shows he developed or supervised included The Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica and The Rockford Files.
He also served as the executive producer of The Virginian, TV’s first 90-minute Western series starring James Drury that aired from 1962 to 1971. In Paul Green’s book, A History of Television’s ‘The Virginian,’ 1962-1971, Price said that the series “played a formative role in my life. I got on-the-job experience running a high-profile show business enterprise, learning to coordinate business and creative endeavors.”
After a 19-year television career, Price left Universal in 1978 to become the president of Columbia Pictures. In his first five years, Price greenlit a string of risky but highly successful films, including Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Stir Crazy (1980), Tootsie and Gandhi in 1982, and The Karate Kid (1984).
In 1983, Price left Columbia due to a clash over financial issues with Francis T. Vincent Jr, the president of Columbia Pictures Industries and baseball commissioner.
Price ended up coming back to Universal in 1983 as chairman of the movie division. Despite a roster of successes like Back to the Future and Out of Africa, Price did not get along with Sidney Sheinberg, the president of MCA, Universal’s parent company. After the failure of Howard of Duck in August 1986, he resigned.
Afterwards, the late executive spent a few years as an independent producer, then went back to Columbia as chairman of its film studio after Sony Corporation acquired it. He worked this job for 18 months before being replaced by Mark Canton.
On Wednesday, Sony Pictures went to Instagram to honor the former executive, writing, “We honor Frank Price, former Chairman & CEO of Columbia Pictures, who championed some of the most enduring films of our time, including Kramer vs. Kramer, Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid, and Boyz n the Hood. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family.”
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Price is survived by his wife, actress Katherine Crawford and their son, Roy Price, the former head of Amazon Studios, William III and 14 grandchildren. He also has another son named David, from his previous marriage to Phyllis Hull, which ended in divorce.
“Anyone who complains about the stresses is a fool,” Price, who truly loved his job, told the Los Angeles Times in 1994. “The pay and the perks are good. You have fun lunches with Streisand and Redford.”
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