Jarvis Joseph Astaire,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(6 October 1923 – 21 August 2021) was a British sports executive, boxing promoter, and film producer.

Life and career

Astaire was born in London in October 1923. He was the leading boxing promoter in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

from the 1950s to the 1980s. He co-promoted with Harry Levine and matchmaker

Mickey Duff Mickey Duff (7 June 1929 – 22 March 2014), was a Polish-born British boxer, matchmaker, manager and promoter. Early life Duff was born Monek Prager to a Jewish family in Tarnów, Poland on 7 June 1929. His father, a rabbi, helped the family ...

. Astaire produced '' Agatha''. He was Consultant to the Sport Division of First Artist Corp. plc from February 2009 on. For much of the early 1970s Astaire owned a controlling stake in Joint Promotions, the former cartel that was the UK's largest

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

organisation from the early 1950s to the late 1980s and which held a monopoly on television coverage of wrestling on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

for most of the that period. He would later play a key role in bringing the WWF's

SummerSlam '92 The 1992 SummerSlam was the fifth annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on Saturday, August 29, 1992, at Wembley Stadium in London, England and a ...

event to

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

before a crowd of around 80,000. Astaire died in August 2021, at the age of 97. His nephew is the writer, film producer, and media advisor

Simon Astaire Simon Jack Astaire (born 1961) is a novelist, screenwriter, media advisor, film producer. Early life Astaire is the son of stockbroker Edgar Astaire and his former wife interior designer Lesley (née Berman), who was subsequently the first wife ...

References

1923 births 2021 deaths British boxing promoters English sports executives and administrators Officers of the Order of the British Empire Sportspeople from London Film producers from London {{England-boxing-bio-stub