Remembering Jerry Levin, The Thoughtful Visionary Who Flubbed His Biggest Deal And Cut A Different Figure Than Brash Media Rivals
deadline.comGerald Levin, known to many as Jerry, wasn’t flamboyant. He wasn’t characterized, as were many of his media business contemporaries, by extravagant hobbies, odd peccadillos, inspiring speeches or a spicy personal life.
He could be testy, but he didn’t engage in public brawls beloved by – and between – Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch. Levin, who died Wednesday at 84 nearly two decades after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, was a philosophy major at Haverford College who was said to be fond of quoting Camus.
But he also was private and often enigmatic at a time when the industry was led by brash founder-leaders like Viacom’s Sumner Redstone and News Corp.’s Murdoch.
Michael Eisner was not a founder but a big personality. Bob Iger has been called a CEO out of central casting. “Jerry Levin was not your central casting CEO,” noted one Wall Streeter.
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