Who Is Michael Ovitz?

Written by Michael Ovitz

Narrated by Michael Ovitz and Dennis Boutsikaris

“When the history of Hollywood is written, few people will have played a larger role than Michael Ovitz.... It is impossible to read such a chronicle and not see Mr. Ovitz as the Steve Jobs of agenting, possessing a version of Jobs’s fanatical drive and a similar desire to remake an industry.” —The Wall Street Journal

Who is Michael Ovitz? He’s a striver who talked his way into the famous mailroom of the William Morris Agency without any connections, then worked his way out of the mailroom in record time.

He’s an entrepreneur who left a safe job to launch Creative Artists Agency, growing it from five guys in a rundown office to the most powerful agency in the world.

He’s a friend and confidant to megastars such as Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, David Letterman, Sean Connery, Bill Murray, Paul Newman, and Martin Scorsese.

He’s a pioneer who reinvented the role of the agent in packaging actors, directors, writers, and producers, which made CAA the essential hub of countless movies and television shows.

He’s a master negotiator who drove historic deals for many of his clients, as well as the acquisitions of two major studios by Sony and Matsushita.

He’s a self-taught connoisseur of art and architecture, a generous philanthropist, a devoted father...

And to his detractors he’s a world-class jerk and a ruthless manipulator who double-crossed his friends, crushed his enemies, and let nothing stand in his way, ever. 

After decades of near silence in the face of relentless controversy, Ovitz finally tells his whole story in this memoir, with remarkable candor and insight. If you’re going to read just one book about how show business really works, this is the one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Sep 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9780525643845

Reviews for Who Is Michael Ovitz?

[idiopathic-374092 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So many stories!

This book is such good fun to read. The pace of story telling is relentless, which is what it must have been like to be around this man.

As a tech person with no background (or interest) in Hollywood I was still gripped by his stories. My outsider knowledge is similar to his description of LA movie people ignorant of New York finance people: “Hollywood, where people didn’t know Goldman Sachs from Saks Fifth Avenue”. He worked with so many people moving behind the scenes with such high profile outcomes.

Ovitz transformed the commercial artist representation business, in the process dramatically raising the price and power of talent for the studios. In an industry built on luck and relationships he scaled up hard work and hard ball to make an almost monopolistic agency that often represented all the major actors, directors and producers in each movie so the studio could not play any off against the other.

He then expanded the agency to handle mergers and acquisitions, selling 2 of the 7 Hollywood studios to Japanese companies. And extended further to advertising, winning a $31 million Coca Cola contract from a standing start in the advertising industry. He would have done much more if it was not for the guilds stopping him.

The CEO of Disney did not allow him to succeed when he hired him as the COO of Disney. But Orvitz got $130 million severance out of it. He latest act was to become a successful technology investor in Silicon Valley.

The secret to his enormous success is clear - he works harder and longer than anyone else, and his hard work has compound interest. I do not understand how he managed to sustain such a pace but he really did.

I also do not understand why he still cares because he clearly does. Once you get $130 million for being fired and the court confirms that you were mistreated by your employer, why does the mistreatment still hurt you? Once you sell Columbia to Sony, why does your LA colleagues’ annoyance at your being in Japan during the deal still upset you? Once you have signed up every important actor and director away from their previous agent, why be angry that the agents you beat and the buyers whose buying power you crushed are angry at you? But the book is full of hurt, upset and anger. Even though he won, and won massively, I don’t think he got to enjoy it.

Nevertheless, what an extraordinary collection of stories of winning in difficult situations. One story stuck with me from his founding of the agency. He and four cofounders left their previous agency employer to found the new agency. The employer found out about this before they had fully set up because the banker setting up their account was friends with the employer and tipped off the employer. The employer fired them, blocked others in the industry from working with them, and convinced another company to sue them for the trademark name of the new agency. A spurious lawsuit, but it would take time and money to fight and the new team has neither. Back against the wall, Mike remembered that the massive company suing his tiny startup was being investigated by the Federal government anti trust team. Hands shaking, voice quivering, he calls the company’s lawyer and says he will tip off the federal government that this lawsuit is another example of monopolistic practices. He gives the lawyer 2 hours to send a letter cancelling the law suit before Mike will call his contact. Mike has no such contact. But in 1 hour and 45 minutes he has a hand delivered a letter cancelling the law suit.

There is always a move.

It’s inspirational to read Mike share some of his moves.

[writemoves · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There are very few books that I would lose sleep over. However this is one of them. I wanted to finish the book to see how the story ended and I put off sleep for a couple of hours. Ovitz was a renowned Hollywood agent. I knew a bit about him from the book about the Tonight Show when Letterman and Leno were positioning themselves as host to replace Johnny Carson. Ovitz opened the book by describing his important and sizable role during the negotiations with NBC. Ovitz has a lot more stories – – some were stories of success, some were stories where he was not successful.

I particularly enjoyed his stories and insights about various Hollywood actors and celebrities including Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro, Madonna, Paul Newman, Bill Murray, Sean Connery and Tom Cruise to name a few.

Ovitz was a brutally candid and very ambitious man. I can see how he drew a lot of enemies and why so many people in Hollywood feared him. He was not afraid in this book to name names. I'm sure that there are a lot of people named in this book who are not happy with Ovitz.

Very readable! A lot of great stories! Some interesting portraits of Hollywood celebrities. highly recommended by me…