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Producer of ‘Summer of ‘42’ Dead at 76

Mar 27, 2017  •  Post A Comment

Richard A. Roth, who produced the 1971 coming-of-age romance “Summer of ’42” and the 1975 Gene Wilder movie “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother,” has died. Deadline.com reports that Roth died March 17 at his home in New York City.

Roth reportedly died of natural causes. He was 76.

“According to his family, Roth had graduated from Stanford University Law School and was working for a small literary agency when he read the ‘Summer of ’42’ screenplay from a slush pile,” Deadline reports. “He borrowed $5,000 from his father, optioned the screenplay and pitched it to ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ director Robert Mulligan.”

Shot on a budget of $1 million, the movie became a hit, grossing $32 million and earning Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, winning an Academy Award for the score by Michel Legrand.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Roth “had a bit part as an aide to Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars), the guy with the creaky prosthetic arm, in Wilder’s ‘Young Frankenstein’ (1974).”

Roth also worked for CBS Entertainment in the 1980s.

One Comment

  1. Herman Raucher http://www.hermanraucher.con wrote the book and the movie based on his life.

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