Peter Riva (born May 11, 1950) is an American literary agent and producer. He managed

Voyager Voyager may refer to: Computing and communications * LG Voyager, a mobile phone model manufactured by LG Electronics * NCR Voyager, a computer platform produced by NCR Corporation * Voyager (computer worm), a computer worm affecting Oracle ...

's "Round the World Flight Program" in 1985. He also produced the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

' event "Only One Earth" (1990), for which he won a Telly Award.

Early life

John Peter Riva was born on May 11, 1950, in Manhattan to William Riva, a Broadway and TV set designer, and

Maria Riva Maria Elisabeth Riva (née Sieber; born December 13, 1924) is a German-born American former actress. She worked on television at CBS in the 1950s, becoming one of the first stars of early kinescope-era television. She is the daughter of actress ...

, the only child of

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

, who was an early TV star (for

William S. Paley William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into o ...

, CBS) and Broadway actress. His older brother

J. Michael Riva J. Michael Riva (June 28, 1948 – June 7, 2012) was an American production designer. Early and personal life John Michael Riva was born in Manhattan, to William Riva, a Broadway set designer, and Maria Elisabeth Sieber, a German-born actress ...

, a production designer, died in 2012 and he has two younger brothers, John Paul and John David. Riva attended the prep school

Institut Le Rosey Institut Le Rosey (), commonly referred to as Le Rosey or simply Rosey, is a private boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland. Founded in 1880 by Paul-Émile Carnal on the site of the 14th-century Château du Rosey in the town of Rolle in the canto ...

for 5 years, and then attended first Carnegie-Mellon University and

UCLA Film School The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...

. He afterwards was part of the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

apprentice program where he was a gofer for

Ian MacNaughton Edward Ian MacNaughton (30 December 1925 – 10 December 2002) was a Scottish actor-turned-television producer and director, best known for his work with the ''Monty Python'' team. MacNaughton was director and producer for all but four of the f ...

, producer of the series ''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...

''.

Career

Riva is the co-founder of International Transactions, Inc., a literary agency. Riva has worked as a literary agent with his wife Sandra Anne since 1972. He has represented authors like

Stieg Larsson Karl Stig-Erland "Stieg" Larsson (, ; 15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004) was a Swedish writer, journalist, and activist. He is best known for writing the ''Millennium'' trilogy of crime novels, which were published posthumously, starting in 2 ...

(''

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' (original title in sv, Män som hatar kvinnor , lit=''Men Who Hate Women'') is a psychological thriller novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson (1954–2004). It was published posthumously in 2 ...

'' trilogy),

(''Dietrich by Her Daughter''),

Peter Beard Peter Hill Beard (January 22, 1938 – March 31 / April 19, 2020) was an American artist, photographer, diarist, and writer who lived and worked in New York City, Montauk and Kenya. His photographs of Africa, African animals and the journ ...

, Ake Edwardson,

Pieter Aspe Pieter Aspe (officially ''Pierre Aspeslag''; 3 April 1953 – 1 May 2021) was a Belgian writer of a series of detective stories starring inspector Pieter Van In. These were adapted for the long-running TV series (2004–14) starring . He died ...

John Enright John Enright (July 2, 1864 – February 19, 1898) was a United States Navy sailor and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. Biography Born on July 2, 1864, in Lynn, Massachusetts, Enright joined the N ...

, Dick Rutan and

Jeana Yeager Jeana Lee Yeager (born May 18, 1952) is an American aviator. She co-piloted, along with Dick Rutan, the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Rutan Voyager aircraft from December 14 to 23, 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 m ...

. From the early 1970s to the early 1980s he licensed toys and games for companies including

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, and Witt-Thomas-Harris. Riva has produced over ten television documentaries, including the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

''With Peter Beard in Africa'' (1988) and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

"The Voyager Story" (1987). He was a co-producer on White Mountain Film's "In the Blood" (Africa, 1987). He produced the

' Headquarter (NY) event "Only One Earth" (1990), broadcast to 1.1 billion people worldwide (for which Riva won a "Telly Award"). The footage showed negotiations for the first global environmental treaty between the US and

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. He produced two expeditions: The Rio Roosevelt Expedition (Amazon, 1992) and the Livingston Expedition (Africa, 1995). In 1995, along with his partner Bertram van Munster, he created and produced the television series (

Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...

) ''Wild Things'', 78 one-hour reality TV episodes. He was co-executive producer on a number of projects including Jim Kohlberg's ''Home in the Morning'' based on the book by Mary Glickman. In the 1980s Riva produced over a dozen art exhibits. He produced "Sightseeing, A Panorama From Space," an art photographic exhibit which has become the world's most attended art exhibit. The project was conceived in 1982 with the help of

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...

Lucien Clergue Lucien Clergue (; 14 August 1934 – 15 November 2014) was a French photographer. He was Chairman of the Academy of Fine Arts, Paris for 2013. Biography Lucien Clergue was born in Arles, France. At the age of 7 he began learning to play the ...

and Senator Edward Kennedy. It came to include over 175,000 hand-held astronaut images never before seen (1984). The exhibit opened at the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

(1985, Washington, D.C.) and at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie (1985,

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province of ...

, France). In 1984 he was asked to advise, and in 1985 took over as de facto project manager, for the

'Round the World Flight program. The Voyager completed the 1st nonstop circumnavigation of the globe on December 14, 1986. In 1986 Riva arranged for the Voyager aircraft to be permanently displayed in the National Air & Space Museum. In 1993 he arranged for the Marlene Dietrich Collection to be displayed permanently in Berlin at the

Deutsche Kinemathek Die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen is a major German film archive located in Berlin. History The Deutsche Kinemathek opened in 1963. Until the opening of a permanent display in the Museum of Film and Television Berlin (Mu ...

. The museum constructed a new building for that display at the Sony Center on the Potsdam Platz, Berlin. He is manager of the Marlene Dietrich companies, including the Marlene Dietrich Foundation (

Munich, Germany Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

), and also manages her legacy. He is on the board of the FilmMuseum Berlin (part of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin), advised the UN Environment Programme for 15 years and the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie (Arles, France) for 8 years. He was also on the board of New Century Conservation Trust and the Global Communications for Conservation charity.

Personal life

Riva and his wife, Sandra Anne, met in Spain when they were 13 and married at the age of 22 in London, England. They have two sons, John Matthew (born 1976) and Sean Peter (born 1979), both born in London.

Awards

* Honorary Citizen of Arles, France, 1985 * Teddy Award, National Outdoor Travel Film Festival, 1988 * Telly Award, 1991

References

External links

*
Peter Riva
at Publishers Marketplace
Peter Riva
at Scribd {{DEFAULTSORT:Riva, Peter American expatriates in Switzerland American expatriates in the United Kingdom American people of German descent Living people 1950 births