Sol Leon, an executive vice president of the William Morris agency, died on Dec. 5 from heart failure. He was 90.
Leon attended New York University and City College of New York, and earned a law degree from the Brooklyn Law School before joining the William Morris agency in 1940. He briefly served in the Army Signal Corps during World War II, then returned to William Morris where he worked his way up from the mailroom to running its television department in New York.
For more than half a century, Leon represented major entertainment figures, including Woody Allen, Joan Crawford, Ted Knight, Merv Griffin, Dionne Warwick, Raymond Burr and Dick Van Dyke. He signed actress Loretta Young to an NBC contract in 1953; two years later, she became one of the first Academy Award-winning actresses to nab an Emmy. Leon also drew up the first TV contract for comedic legend Milton Berle.
December 17, 2003 by
Sol Leon
Categories: Hollywood
Sol was a good persona friend when I lived on Central Park West. My wife introduced him to his wife. They too were good friends. I haven’t seen or spoken to him in many many years, but i will always remember our good times together as we were making our way in life.