Film producer Edythe “Edie” Landau, known for Oscar-nominated Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Hopscotch and The Deadly Game, has died. She was 95.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that she died “peacefully” of natural causes at her home in Century City on Dec. 24.
From the beginning, Landau was a pioneer for women in the industry. After graduating from Wilkes College, she started her career in New York City at National Telefilm Associates. The company was founded by Ely Landau, who she later married.
Eventually, Landau became executive vice president of the company, where she oversaw original programming, including The Play of the Week, The Mike Wallace Show, The David Susskind Show and Open End.
The National Telefilm Associates later expanded to television and motion pictures and went on to produce Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Oscar-nominated films The Pawnbroker and King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis. The latter film was also added to the National Film Registry in 1999.
Once Landau launched The American Film Theatre in 1973, she took several plays to the big screen, including A Delicate Balance, The Iceman Cometh, The Homecoming and Oscar-nominated The Man in the Glass Booth. She also produced several films in the ’70s, including Hopscotch, The Chosen and The Holcroft Covenant.
As Landau continued to pave the way for women interested in producing, she added cable television productions to her list of credits with Separate Tables, Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson and The Christmas Wife.
Throughout her career, she took on several other roles, including as an equal rights advocate when she helped change restrictions that stopped women from boarding all-male passenger planes in 1958. Then, after decades of producing films and TV, she went to the University of West Los Angeles School of Law and became a member of the State Bar of California in 1982. She also later published several pieces of poetry.
Her son, Jon Landau, followed in her footsteps and went on to produce Oscar-winning films, including Titanic and Avatar. He took to Instagram Tuesday to pay tribute to his mother, saying, “Edie, thank you for all you taught me, thank you for the life example you always were, and thank you for all the love you bestowed on me. You will be in our hearts forever.”
Landau is survived by her children Jon, Tina and Kathy, her stepson Les, and their families.
