Susi Mengers (September 2, 1932 – October 15, 2011) was a talent agent for many filmmakers and actors of the New Hollywood generation of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

Early life

Mengers was born to a Jewish family in Hamburg, Germany, the daughter of George and Ruth Mengers (née Levy). Several years of birth have been published, and while she was living, reporters stated "she won't say just when" she was born. In 1938, she arrived at age five in New York with her parents on the ship S.S. Koenigstein from Antwerp. Neither of her parents spoke English at the time. Settling in Utica, New York, her father became a traveling salesman. After her father's suicide in a Times Square hotel, she relocated to the Bronx with her mother, who took a job as a bookkeeper.

Career

Mengers, at 17, she answered an MCA ad for "receptionist, theatrical agency" and entered the talent agency business in 1955 as a receptionist. She also worked for a while as a secretary for freelance theatrical agency Baum & Newborn. Eventually, she was hired as a secretary at the William Morris Agency, a powerhouse in the emerging television industry, where she remained until 1963, when a former Baum & Newborn colleague, Tom Korman, formed his own agency and hired her as a talent agent. "I was a little pisher, a little nothing making $135 a week as a secretary for the William Morris Agency in New York. Well, I looked around and I admired the Morris office and their executives, and I thought: “Gee, what they do isn’t that hard, you know.” And I like the way they live, and I like those expense accounts, and I like the cars. And I used to stay late at the office, just like “All About Eve,” and I suddenly thought: “That beats typing.”" Her first big addition to her books was actress Julie Harris, who was primarily a stage performer. To Mengers' surprise, Harris wanted to appear on an episode of Bonanza. Mengers contacted the producer, who commissioned a specially written episode for Harris. Mengers represented Anthony Perkins, who had not worked in the United States since Psycho (1960). She contacted producer Ray Stark and obtained for Perkins a role in director René Clément's film Is Paris Burning? (1966). In the late 1960s, she was hired by Creative Management Associates (CMA), a boutique agency owned by Freddie Fields. CMA's clients included Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Robert Redford. On December 30, 1974, Fields sold the agency to Marvin Josephson's International Famous Agency (IFA); the two companies merged to become International Creative Management (ICM). Mengers represented Candice Bergen, Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon, Cher, Joan Collins, Brian De Palma, Faye Dunaway, Bob Fosse, Gene Hackman, Sidney Lumet, Ali MacGraw, Steve McQueen, Mike Nichols, Nick Nolte, Tatum O'Neal, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Barbra Streisand, Gore Vidal, and Tuesday Weld, among others. Mengers ceased to be Streisand's agent, she told the Los Angeles Times, after a disagreement over Yentl (1983), which gained Oscar nominations but was not a big box-office hit. On 1 August 1986, she retired from International Creative Management (ICM) when her contract expired and returned to the William Morris Agency for a brief period from 1988-90. Shortly after the Manson family Tate–LaBianca murders, Mengers reportedly reassured Streisand: "Don't worry, honey, stars aren't being murdered. Only featured players."

Personal life

On May 5, 1973, she married Belgian writer-director Jean-Claude Tramont at a chapel in Big Sur. Barbra Streisand was her maid of honor, and Comte Bruno d'Oncieu was Tramont's best man. Tramont died on December 27, 1996, aged 66, from cancer. In 1988, after retiring from the talent agency business, for nearly 20 years, Mengers held A-List Hollywood evening salons of 8-12 people, and more free-flowing and gossipy lunch parties that were open only to women, that included Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, David Geffen, Lorne Michaels, Tina Fey, Diane Keaton, Jimmy Fallon, Gore Vidal, Elton John, Ryan Phillippe, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Neil Diamond, Michael Douglas, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Princess Margaret, Bill Maher, Martin Short, Graydon Carter, Tim Robbins, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, Nora Ephron, Kelly Lynch, Fran Lebowitz, Tom Hooper, Angie Dickinson, Sidney Poitier, Billy Wilder, Robert Downey Jr., Alex Witchel, Alessandra Stanley, Barbra Streisand, Ali MacGraw, Joanna Poitier, Boaty Boatwright, Bette Midler, Sting (musician), Trudie Styler, Barry Diller, Sherry Lansing, William Friedkin, David Semel, Bryan Lourd, Richard D. Zanuck, Mel Brooks. Her parties in her agenting days included Lauren Hutton, Paul Schrader, Mike Nichols, Ann-Margret. Mengers introduced Barry Diller to Diane von Furstenberg. She was with an ever-present joint in her hand ("I used to bring her pot" - Bill Maher ).

Death

Mengers died on Saturday, October 15, 2011, from pneumonia, "after a number of small strokes, and a lifetime of illnesses" at her home in Beverly Hills, California, "surrounded by three of her close friends, Ali MacGraw, Joanna Poitier, and Boaty Boatwright", at age 79. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter posted a written tribute the following morning.

Legacy