Andrea Jaffe, a prominent publicist in the 1980s who later became a studio executive and was herself a member of one of Hollywood’s most storied dynasties died today in Wilmington, North Carolina after a lengthy battle with illness. She was 66.
The daughter of former Columbia Pictures chairman Leo Jaffe and sister to producer and former Paramount executive Stanley Jaffe, Jaffe started her career as an assistant at Rogers & Cowan, going on to found her own publicity company, Andrea Jaffe and Associates, through which she represented some of the biggest stars of the era in the 80s and 90s. Among her clients were Tom Cruise, Richard Gere, Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Farrah Fawcett, Bette Midler, Sissy Spacek, Oliver Stone, Michael Apted, and production firms such as Sherry Lansing Productions and Largo Entertainment amongst others. During the period, Jaffe also handled publicity for films like Platoon, Fatal Attraction, Rain Man, The Grifters, The Doors, and JFK.
She shuttered her company in 1992 in order to head up marketing at 20th Century Fox, overseeing creative advertising, publicity and promotional efforts for all of the studio’s domestic releases. She later became an independent marketing consultant and devoted her tome to charities such as Save the Children.
She is survived by her brothers Stanley, Ira, and Howard, jer sister Marcia, and her nieces and nephews Betsy, Bobby, Alexander, Katie, Wendy, Eric, Leah, Todd and Dana. Donations in her name may be made to the Save the Children Foundation.
