developer of the U.S. movie rating system, died on Thursday at age 85, his longtime spokesman, Warren Cowan, said.
movie industry's No. 1 lobbyist for 38 years. He retired in Valenti, at the time heading a public relations agency working with the White House, was in John F.
Kennedy's motorcade, six cars back from the president's limousine, when Valenti suffered a stroke in March 2007, shortly before he was to begin promoting his memoir, "This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood." Cowan said he died at his home in Washington, surrounded by President George W. Bush, a former governor of Texas, "leaves a powerful legacy in Washington, in Hollywood, and across our Nation.
" unreasonable business, Jack Valenti was a giant voice of reason. He was the greatest ambassador Hollywood has ever known and I will value his wisdom and friendship for all time." And Actor Kirk Douglas, a close friend, said, "He was a loyal and caring friend to many people.
If you had a problem, it became his problem. He was a giant in our industry and his At the MPAA, Valenti crusaded for copyright enforcement, recorders made it easy to copy movies. "The VCR is to the Strangler is to the woman home alone," he once told Congress.
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