The Hollywood Reporter
1/1/2021
He also collaborated with Sheldon Leonard on 'The Andy Griffith Show' and 'I Spy' and with Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones movies during his long career.
Mike Fenton, the influential casting director who found actors for such landmark films as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Godfather: Part II, E.T. — The Extraterrestrial and the three Back to the Future movies, has died. He was 85.
Fenton, who spent more than a half-century in show business, died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, his son, Mick, told The Hollywood Reporter.
After starting out in the mailroom at
Music Corporation of America and becoming an agent at the Lew Wasserman firm,
Fenton served as casting director for Paramount and then for Danny Thomas and
Sheldon Leonard's T&L Productions, where he worked on The Dick Van Dyke
Show, The Andy Griffith Show, That Girl, Gomer Pyle: USMC and I Spy.
Fenton co-founded the Casting Society of America (then known as American Society of Casting Directors) in 1982. He was presented with the CSA's Hoyt Bowers Award for career achievement in 1989 and was a champion of casting directors everywhere.
Fenton collaborated with Steven Spielberg on the director's first feature, The Sugarland Express (1974), as well as on episodes of NBC's Amazing Stories, three Indiana Jones films and Empire of the Sun (1987). He also worked on many features that Spielberg produced, including the trio of Back to the Future movies, Poltergeist (1982) and An American Tail (1986).
His expansive list of credits — he has nearly 300 on IMDb — also included American Graffiti (1973), Chinatown (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Shampoo (1975), The Bad News Bears (1976), Marathon Man (1976), Slap Shot (1977), Breaking Away (1979), Norma Rae (1979), Blade Runner (1982), A Christmas Story (1983), Footloose (1984), Aliens (1986), Beaches (1988), Total Recall (1990), Chaplin (1992), Toy Story (1995) and Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014).
Asked about his craft in a 2019 interview, Fenton said that a casting director "puts together the psychological and the physical attributes of the person you're casting. Who best can play that part? As a casting director, do you cast that person because of the look, or do you cast it because of their ability? … That's the art of casting."
Ronald Michael Feinstein was born in Los Angeles on Jan. 29, 1935, and raised in Beverly Hills. His father, Robert, was a successful stock broker who lost all his money in the Depression and then owned a gas station.
Fenton graduated from UCLA film school in 1956 aiming to become a cinematographer and then landed a job in the mailroom at MCA. Mentored by Herman Citron, he was promoted to agent and represented such clients as Alfred Hitchcock and Shirley MacLaine.
After a year at the Ashley-Steiner Agency, he worked alongside future Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) before joining Paramount as casting director in 1963. He discovered actors for Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis movies, then spent three years at T&L, where he also was an associate producer on the Robert Culp-Bill Cosby starring I Spy.
At T&L, he hired Fred Roos, another future Oscar-winning producer (The Godfather: Part II), and the pair went on to form their own casting agency in 1971. Fenton would later partner with Jane Feinberg, Judy Taylor, Allison Cowitt and, most recently, Ann Frederick.
In addition to his son, survivors his second wife, Irene, daughter-in-law Alison and grandchildren Riley and Olivia. He was married to Janet Monfort from 1963 until her 2003 death.
FENTON, Mike (Ronals Michael Fenton)
Born: 1/29/1935, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A
Died: 12/30/2020, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Mike Fenton’s westerns – casting director:
The Guns of Will Sonnett (TV) – 1967-1969
Rango - 1967
Another Man, Another Chance - 1977
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days - 1979
The Long Riders – 1980
The Legend of the Lone Ranger - 1981
Zorro: The Gay Blade – 1981
Timerider: The Adventures of Lyle Swann – 1982
Louisiana (TV) - 1984
Back to the Future III – 1990
White Fang - 1991
Bad Girls – 1994
Lightning Jack – 1994
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