RIP Present Biz Legend Freddie Ross Hancock MBE, 92, PR and Advertising and marketing Genius, Founding father of BAFTA NY, Widow of Famed UK Comic Tony Hancock

It’s with nice disappointment that I report the demise at present at 92 of a legend, Freddie Ross Hancock. Freddie was a bigger than life member of the worldwide present enterprise group. A Brit, she lived in America for 50 years, introduced BAFTA — the British model of the Academy Awards — to New York, acquired an MBE (offered by then Prince Charles), and counted dozens of celebrities and excessive profile corporations as purchasers and pals.

Within the UK some will recall Freddie because the second and last spouse of a really well-known British comic, Tony Hancock. (From the mid 50s for a decade Tony Hancock was the #1 star on British TV.) They had been collectively for 11 tempestuous years till Tony’s demise age 44 in 1968. The wedding a part of it was solely about three years on the finish, as Hancock — who was just like the Sid Caesar of England — was a raging alcoholic who couldn’t discover solace. A yr after his demise, Freddie revealed a bestselling memoir within the UK known as “Hancock” with revered theater journalist, David Nathan.

Nathan wrote of Freddie in his preface: “Considered one of London’s prime present enterprise PR consultants, she was a well-known determine within the movie and theater circles wherein I more and more labored. She was extra revered than most of she informed the reality about her purchasers, and if that was not all the time doable, she not less than didn’t invent tales to get publicity for them.”

Freda Ross was born in London in 1930. Earlier than going out on her personal and managing Tony Hancock within the Sixties, Freddie labored for 2 years on the Holland America Line, studying public relations. She went on to grow to be Assistant Head of Publicity at Common Photos’ UK places of work the place she labored with stars of the time like Shelley Winters and Rock Hudson. When she began her personal PR agency she turned the first promoter of international movies in England. She additionally started serving to to advertise British movies within the US. Her purchasers included each well-known star of the time, from Julie Andrews to Sean Connery, Sophia Loren and husband Carlo Ponti, Jim Dale, Topol (star of the movie model of “Fiddler on the Roof’), and Theodore Bikel.

After Hancock died, Freddie moved to the US and commenced consulting for US film corporations exporting their movies to the UK, and vice versa. When Miramax turned very concerned with British movies, it was Freddie who gave recommendation the right way to place them, from Service provider Ivory movies to ones like “Mrs. Brown”starring Judi Dench. In 1995 she introduced BAFTA to the States, giving it the next worldwide profile. In 2002, she was thanked for her work by Queen Elizabeth with an MBE (Member of the British Empire). She labored on numerous initiatives with huge names together with Masterpiece Theater’s Alistair Cooke (pictured right here with Freddie), whose eightieth celebration in New York she organized with James Galway and Leonard Bernstein performing. She obtained then-president Ronald Reagan to ship a video greeting, and Reagan responded with a thanks to Freddie.

Freddie filed for divorce and the ink was nearly dry when Tony Hancock dedicated suicide in 1968. Though she was technically his widow she acquired not a dime from his property. (She was portrayed in two completely different UK tv motion pictures.) She informed an interviewer in 1996: . “When Tony was alive, individuals used to say to me: “do you could have kids?” I used to say: “sure, only one.” “How previous?” “Fairly previous – 44.””

She by no means remarried. As an alternative she was a pioneer, a trailblazer as a girl making it on her personal in present enterprise. This was not simple, however her biting wit and insistent loyalty to purchasers stood her in good stead all over the world. Others whom she counted as shut pals ranged by British race automotive famous person Stirling Moss to Tony and Oscar successful composer Marvin Hamlisch.

Within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s she additionally labored as Senior Vice-President of Acquisitions for the film distributor American Video Movies, the place she was a beloved presence on the Cannes Movie Pageant. Apart from founding BAFTA, she was additionally Vice-Chairman of the US wing of the Royal Tv Society.

Freddie actually had an excellent thoughts. Even into her 80s she by no means stopped screening movies for BAFTA, giving shrewd recommendation about the right way to market them. She additionally had a devilish humorousness and knew, as we prefer to say, the place all of the our bodies had been buried. Thanks partly to a longtime friendship with gossip columnist Cindy Adams (and with whom she shared an actual birthday month), Freddie was present on each topic til the top. There was nothing I may inform her that she didn’t know. It was very irritating!

Firmly ensconced within the US with no rapid household close by, Freddie Ross Hancock correctly handpicked a bunch of youthful pals whom she selected her adopted household. It was a sensible transfer. This group on this facet of the Atlantic is counted as her survivors, most particularly CNN correspondent Richard Quest, who acted as a faithful surrogate son, and lots of others. (She was nonetheless linked within the UK to her beloved sister-in–legislation, Shannie Ross, to whom she spoke day-after-day for 50 years.) We couldn’t have been luckier than to rely her as our pal. She shall be sorely missed and by no means forgotten.