Hillard Elkins

Hillard Elkins, a producer who broke down sexual barriers and created one of the biggest hits in Broadway history when he brought the erotic revue "Oh! Calcutta!" to the stage which ran for 20 years. Hilly as his friends called him started out in the mail room at William Morris in New York and quickly rose to become a top agent, heading the company's theatrical division. After forming his own company whose clients included Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Culp, Mel Brooks, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Sammy Davis Jr. among others he set up as a producer and in short order developed a string of notable plays and films, including the musical "Golden Boy," the film "Alice's Restaurant" and the Broadway premieres of two plays by Athol Fugard which won double Tonys. With Al Goldin he made his Broadway debut in 1962 with "Come On Strong," A Garson Kanin comedy starring Carroll Baker and Van Johnson. He approached Sammy Davis Jr to take the starring role of the violinist turned prizefighter in a musical version of the Clifford Odets play "Golden Boy." He then lured Odets out of retirement to writ the book, which was revised after Odets death in Aug.1963 by William Gibson. It won four Tony nominations for best musical, best actor in a musical, best choreography and best producer of a musical. More seriously he produced the Ibsen plays "Hedda Gabler" and A Doll's House" in London, Broadway and opened the Kennedy Center in Washington with his then wife Claire Bloom. He went on to write his own chapter in the history of the 1960s counterculture when he produced Ken Tynan's musical sex revue "Oh! Calcutta! and with Arthur Penn as director he produced the film version of Arlo Gutherie's "Alice's Restaurant". In 1960 he created his first production company, Elkins Productions International. His frenetic style and knack for juggling multiple theater and film projects simultaneously was captured in the 1972 book "The Producer" an inside look at show business by Christopher Davis. His producing projects over the years included "The Rothschilds" 1970 starring Hal Linden and Jill Clayburgh. Sammy Davis Jr. "Stop the World", Ben Vereen's Pippin, Leonard Bernstein's Candide, The Huberman Festival in Israel, Gore Vidal's Richard Nixon, The Leary-Liddy debates, Quentin Crisp and Georgia Brown in Concert as well as numerous films including the Elaine May-Walter Matthau comedy "A New Leaf" (1971) and "Richard Pryor: Live in Concert(1979)praised by Pauline Kael as probably he greatest of all recorded-performance films. He is survived by his wife Sandi Love, his two sons Johnny and Daniel and granddaughter Ellen.