Judith James Dies: ‘Quiz Show’ & ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus’ Producer, Longtime Richard Dreyfuss Collaborator Was 86
deadline.comJudith James, a film, TV and Broadway producer who was Richard Dreyfuss’ producing partner for many years and worked on such projects as Quiz Show, Mr.
Holland’s Opus and Eleanor: In Her Own Words, has died of cancer in Santa Barbara, CA. She was 86. Her son, Jackson James, revealed the news. “From the minute I met Judy James at the Mark Taper Forum [in Los Angeles], I knew I had found someone who had the same passion for storytelling that I did,” The Goodbye Girl Oscar winner Dreyfuss said in a statement. “In all the years we were producing partners, we were of like mind, not gender, and we always found a way to agree and wouldn’t have done anything without each others’ approval.
She was a wonderful woman and a great friend.” Born Judith Rutherford, James moved to New York after college to pursue a career in theater.
She produced the groundbreaking 1963 interracial off-Broadway play In White America, which was drawn from historical records by a Princeton professor and won a Drama Desk Award.
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