Walter Seltzer | Hollywood benefactor, 96

Walter Seltzer, 96, a Hollywood press agent-turned-producer who started out at MGM in the 1930s and made an enduring mark on the industry in the 1980s as a tenacious fund-raiser for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, has died.

Mr. Seltzer died Friday of an age-related illness at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's retirement home in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, said Jennifer Fagen, a spokeswoman for the fund.

In charge of marketing for the heartwarming 1955 movie Marty, Mr. Seltzer inadvertently helped Burt Lancaster's production company make film history: The producers were the first to spend more on an Oscar campaign - about $60,000 more - than they did to make the low-budget film.

"We offered to send a print of the picture, a projector and a projectionist to the home of anyone who would invite 20 academy members to a screening," Mr. Seltzer told the Associated Press in 2005. He was credited with "reawakening a sleeper." Marty got four Academy Awards, including for best picture.

By the late 1950s, he was helping to run Marlon Brando's production company and in the 1960s began making movies with his friend Charlton Heston. The films included the 1970s science-fiction thrillers Soylent Green and The Omega Man.

The son of a pioneering film exhibitor, Mr. Seltzer was born Nov. 7, 1914, in Philadelphia. His older brothers, Frank and Julian, also worked in the industry. Both died in their late 70s.

Mr. Seltzer worked as a theater usher before attending the University of Pennsylvania from 1932 through 1934. He came to Hollywood in 1935 as a publicist for Fox West Coast Theaters.

- Los Angeles Times