For more than twenty years, Englishman Richard Gregson was one of the most powerful film personalities in Hollywood and London. As the agent for Robert Redford, John Schlesinger, Alan Bates, Frederic Raphael and producer Jo Janni, he saw the industry from many angles and met ‘anyone who was anyone’ in Hollywood including Frank Sinatra and members of the Mafia. He also produced films (Downhill Racer) and a musical on Broadway (Cyrano, starring Christopher Plummer) and co-scripted the Academy Award-nominated The Angry Silence. During this time he was married to the legendarily beautiful film star, Natalie Wood.
Gregson’s career in show business began by complete fluke. Working at a religious bookshop in London, measuring cardinals for robes and helping old ladies find their missals, Paul Scott (Raj Quartet), then a full time literary agent who wrote novels in his spare time, came into the shop and asked if there was anybody the managing director knew who had any knowledge about the film business. The MD pointed to Richard, on the slender premise that he was passionate about films and his brother was an actor.
A month later, Richard found himself opening the film and television department at David Higham Associates, one of the top literary agencies in London: ‘It was a fantastic time to be an agent', says Gregson, ‘because it was a period of experimentation. There was a great love affair with making really good movies and there was a huge amount of money and talent around.’
Later setting up his own agency and opening an L.A. office in 1966 Gregson met the film star, Natalie Wood, at a party. The attraction was instant and mutual. Soon they were living together and later they married and had a much-loved daughter, Natasha, now an actress. Could life get any better?
Life, of course, is seldom that simple, as Gregson would shortly find out. Both his agency and his marriage came to an end creating a black hole from which he was, in the end, rescued by Robert Redford. This would in turn create its own opportunity to move into different areas and allow Gregson to move back to London.
Richard Gregson now lives on a farm in Wales with his fourth wife, the novelist Julia Gregson, and is still very much involved in the film and writing world.
A heavenly dip into the magical world of Hollywood ...the stories ,all beautifully told are truly spellbinding ... ....a cast of showbiz legends from behind and before the camera .......only someone who lived that dream could recount it all like this ... ......incomparable !!" Larry Lamb, Actor (Eastenders, Gavin and Stacey)
Richard Gregson has spent a much of his life as an agent and producer in movies and theatre. He has worked with some of the greatest talents not only in his native England but in his adopted U.S.A. as well. His book reflects his passion and commitment to his show business clients, associates, and friends and reveals why he was one of the most important and dynamic agents during the last half of the twentieth century, when the business was at its most exciting. Jerome Kass, screenwriter, playwright and teacher of screenwriting at the American Film Institute, L.A., N.Y.U and Columbia University.
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