Rowland Perkins (July 10, 1934 – August 8, 2018) was an American talent agent. He was a co-founder and the founding president of the

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency, LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. With 1,800 employees in March 2016, it is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous client ...

(CAA).

Early life

Rowland Perkins was born on July 10, 1934, in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from

Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (shortly as BHHS or Beverly) is a public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills is Moreno High School, a small alternative school located on Beverly Hills High School's c ...

. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

for two years and attended the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

in Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration.

Career

Perkins began his career at the

William Morris Agency The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best-known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent ...

(WMA). Perkins co-founded

with Michael Ovitz,

Ronald Meyer Ronald Meyer (born September 25, 1944) is an American entertainment executive and former talent agent. He co-founded Creative Artists Agency in 1975, and served as the President and Chief Operating Officer at Universal Studios from 1995-2013 and t ...

, William Haber and Michael S. Rosenfeld in 1975. He was its founding president. Perkins negotiated television productions for George Stevens Jr. He retired from CAA in 1993. In 1995, Perkins founded the production company Double Eagle Entertainment. He served on the board of the

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the Television in the United States, television industry in the United S ...

Personal life and death

In 1960, Perkins married Diane Carol Smith whom he had met while they both attended UCLA. They had three daughters, Kamala, Dahra and Alexandra. They divorced in 1976. Perkins later married Sallie James Perkins, an actress, comedian and opera singer. His wife Sallie predeceased him in 2017. He died of pneumonia on August 8, 2018, in Sherman Oaks, California, at age 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Rowland 1934 births 2018 deaths Beverly Hills High School alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Businesspeople from Los Angeles American company founders 20th-century American businesspeople