DGA Honorary Life Member Jack Valenti, the longtime head of the Motion Picture Association of America, was remembered fondly by the Guild and its leaders after his passing on April 26 at age 85.
DGA President Michael Apted said, “Nobody loved and defended film more than Jack did. Movies meant more to Jack than just box office and balance sheets. He was a true fan of the art form and he cherished his kinship with directors and other creative artists.” Apted noted that the Guild made Valenti an Honorary Life Member of the DGA in 2001. “Jack was as fearless as he was eloquent, brilliant, nimble and strong. He earned our love and respect with his passionate commitment to the motion picture industry, and he will be greatly missed,” Apted said.
Valenti was eulogized at a memorial on May 1 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington, DC. Apted and National Executive Director Jay D. Roth were among the industry leaders in attendance.
“Jack was a friend and colleague for more than 20 years,” said Roth, an honorary pallbearer at Valenti’s memorial. “Over the years, we worked together on many issues and, even as adversaries, Jack always considered and understood the director’s point of view and was absolutely fair and honest with us.”
Valenti, who led the MPAA for nearly 40 years, held directors and their teams in great esteem. “To me, one of the prime enticements of being in the film industry was the opportunity to meet and spend time with the greatest cinema icons in the world,” he said last year in an interview in the DGA Quarterly. “I began my tenure in 1966 and in the generations that followed I got to know George Stevens, Billy Wilder, William Wyler, David Lean to Steven Spielberg to the newest such as Steven Soderbergh and Paul Thomas Anderson. So, to have honorary membership in the DGA was, for me, not only a glittering prize, it also allowed me to claim ‘kinship’ with creative directors. Smile if you wish, but that’s what I feel.”
Before taking command of the MPAA in 1966, Valenti had been a wartime bomber pilot, advertising agency founder, political consultant, and White House Special Assistant. As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the MPAA, Valenti presided over and led the American film and television industry as it confronted a sea of change in the United States and abroad. Among other achievements, Valenti created the movie ratings system that pre-empted likely government regulation of the industry. In more recent years, he led the fight against piracy and copyright infringement and opposed the unauthorized editing of films.
Reflecting on the legacy of the Guild, Valenti told DGA Quarterly in 2006: “Over my long tenure in Hollywood, the greatest achievement of the DGA is its disciplined, thoughtful and consistent approach to problems that erupt from time to time in our industry. Through the years, the members of the DGA boards, its presidents and executive directors have always managed to find common ground with the production community and keep the industry working, no matter how thorny and riven with controversy the issues at hand.”
