Ronni Chasen(1946-2010)
- Additional Crew
Ronni Chasen was born Veronica Cohen in Kingston, New York. She always
harbored childhood ambitions to be a publicist after
Roy Rogers and
Dale Evans made a personal appearance
in Madison Square Garden. Ronnie shook hands with Evans, and later told
everyone she saw that she "shook hands with the Queen of the West!",
her brother Larry Cohen recalled. In
the seventies, she did publicity for Larry Cohen's low budget
"blaxspoitation" pictures, later to arrive in Los Angeles as publicity
director for American International Pictures in 1978. While working as
a partner in Rogers and Cowan, she joined MGM as Worldwide Publicity
Chairman in 1993. Her Chasen and Company represented some well-known
directors such as Irwin Winkler,
Mark Rydell and
David Zucker. She led some
campaigns to gain Oscars for many films including
Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and
Rocky (1976). Before her tragic, unexpected
death in 2010, she was leading a nomination campaign for
Michael Douglas in
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
and Cher in
Burlesque (2010).