Movie producer Howard Gottfried, whose longtime partnership with famed scriptwriter Paddy Chayefsky yielded acclaimed films such as “Network” and “Altered States,” has died at 94.
Gottfried, who had a stroke and died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Friday, was a lawyer by training, but had an eye for daring movies and an affinity for adventuresome writers.
He also had a knack for turning chance meetings into productive relationships.
Gottfried met George C. Scott while handling the actor’s divorce, and later recruited him for the lead role in the award-winning film “The Hospital.”
He ran into Chayefsky at a poker game in New York City, where the two cemented a...