Background
Rich was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 19, 1918.
Rich was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 19, 1918.
Among the five Emmy nominated programs Rich produced were the series Dallas and Knots Landing. He earned a marketing degree from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Rich began his career in advertising and ultimately became an industry executive.
As the ad agency middleman between product company sponsors and television producers, he was involved with The Andy Griffith Show, Make Room for Daddy, The Edge of Night, Gomer Pyle, United States.M.C., and The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Rich left Benton & Bowles in 1965 to partner with the Mirisch Company and form Mirisch-Rich Productions. There he produced The Rat Patrol.
In 1969, he, Merv Adelson, and Irwin Molasky formed Lorimar Productions. The Homecoming (1971), and then sequel The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971), served as a pilot for The Waltons, which ran on Columbia Broadcasting System from 1972 to 1981.
Rich also co-produced the short-lived 1977 Columbia Broadcasting System espionage drama Hunter.
Lorimar"s biggest hit was the primetime soap Dallas, which ran from 1978-1991. In regards to the famous Dallas storyline “Who shot J.R.?” in which Larry Hagman’s character is fired upon in the 1979-1980 season finale in March and the assailant is not revealed until the following November, only Rich and writer-director Leonard Katzman knew which of three previously shot endings would be used. After leaving Lorimar in 1986, Rich joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/UA Communications.
Foreign two years he was the chairman and chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Rich died on May 24, 2012, at the age of 93 in Los Angeles, California from lung cancer.
He served in the Navy as a lieutenant in World World War II, and then returned to advertising in New York, where he rose to senior vice president and a member of the board of Benton & Bowles.