Richard Leibner, a pioneering expertise agent who represented such notable broadcast information journalists as Dan Somewhat, Diane Sawyer, Mike Wallace, Andy Rooney, Norah O’Donnell, Ed Bradley, Morley Safer and Fareed Zakaria, died immediately at his house in New York Metropolis. He was 85.
His loss of life was introduced by UTA vice chairman Jay Sures in a memo to staffers obtained by Deadline.
Leibner started his company profession within the Nineteen Sixties as co-founder, with Nate Bienstock, of the New York-based agency N.S. Bienstock, which was acquired by UTA in 2014. Leibner retired in 2021.
“Richard will likely be remembered because the agent who reworked the information enterprise,” Sures wrote within the memo. “Many years in the past, he made it his private mission to see that massive identify information stars needs to be handled and compensated like conventional film and tv stars. Over time, he signed and represented among the greatest and brightest and most iconic names together with Dan Somewhat, Mike Wallace, Bob Simon, Steve Kroft, Invoice Whitaker, Diane Sawyer, Chuck Scarborough, Paula Zahn, Brian Stelter, Fareed Zakaria, and plenty of others.”
Leibner, who was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Corridor of Fame in 2018, was born in Brooklyn and graduated from the College of Rochester and New York College earlier than becoming a member of his father’s New York Metropolis accounting agency in 1964. “After working for his household’s accounting agency for a number of years, he co-founded N.S. Bienstock together with his former accomplice, Nate Bienstock, and collectively they constructed the premier powerhouse company in information and broadcast expertise illustration,” Sures wrote.
Leibner’s spouse, Carole Cooper, joined Bienstock in 1976 and continues working as an agent for UTA. She survives him, as do sons Adam (a UTA TV Broadcast accomplice) and Jonathan. The household was at his aspect when he died peacefully at house.
Funeral providers will likely be introduced shortly.